At least 1,303 households will be expropriated as the City of Kigali starts the first phase of constructing 35 Kilometres out of 70 Kilometres of roads that are planned this year, Emmanuel Asaba Katabarwa, the City Engineer told The New Times.

The City of Kigali has commenced construction of 10 roads in different parts of the capital.

The roads are part of the Kigali Infrastructure Project (KIP) to build a 215 kilometers road network and several bridges by 2024.

The roads include UTEXRWA -Kagugu road, Rwinyana Village Road, Remera-Baho-RDB, road, Migina- Controle Technique Road, and Mulindi- Gasogi- Kabuga Road.

They also include Busanza- Muyange road, Kagarama- Muyange road, Sonatubes-Sahara Road, Miduha-Mageragere road and Rugenge-Muhima hospital-Nyabugogo.

NPD Ltd was awarded the tender to implement the 215 road network project, Katabarwa said.

Initially, Rwf242 billion was estimated to be spent on the project by 2024 according to available information disclosed when Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee was analysing the Auditor General&039;s report for the financial year 2020-2021.

"The budget can change and increase at any time because all roads do not have the same barriers during construction. There are some sections of roads that cost more than what was expected,” he explained.

Lack of land titles, conflicts derail expropriation

Katabarwa said that although 1,303 households have to be expropriated, there are challenges being encountered.

"The first challenge is land conflicts. With land conflicts, we fail to know whom we should compensate for expropriation. For instance, a husband and wife should sign for us before expropriating them after accepting property valuation. But if they are in conflict, we have to wait until the conflict is resolved because some cases are in court. If it is land without houses, we can proceed with road construction but it is not easy to destroy a house before the conflict is resolved. We are assessing how to manage this situation,” he said.

He noted that some property owners to be expropriated are absent.

"Some people bought land or houses and went abroad. It is not easy to find them,” he said.

Katabarwa said that those without land titles also delay expropriation.

"In this case, we are trying to facilitate them get land titles in the districts,” he said.

Another challenge, he said, is the relocation of utilities.

"There are many cases where we have to relocate water, electricity, and fiber optic infrastructure which is also a challenge as the city was poorly planned many years ago. This disrupts the supply of these utilities,” he said.

He said the city is working with WASAC to minimize prolonged inaccessibility to water.

"That is why we also urge city dwellers to seek alternatives and install rainwater harvesting tanks so that they are not much affected,” he said.

"It is not good to wait for water for three weeks. For instance, in Nyagatovu close to Controle Technique water supply was disrupted. There should be alternative ways so that we do not wait for water until the road is complete,” said Jovia Rugamba, a resident of Remera sector.

Prefinancing model in road construction introduced

The phase of the other 35 Kilometres will start in the middle of March 2023 next year.

Katabarwa said that the city has opted for a prefinancing model in implementing the road construction project.

"With prefinancing mode, the contractor implements the project and then we pay them gradually,” he noted.

This is according to changes in the procurement law where some contractors of complex works, or tenders, will have to spend their own money when implementing the projects and be paid later after work is completed using a new innovative procurement method.

The pre-finance in procurement for complex works or tenders” method will ensure that contractors do not abandon works.

It will also help the government when there is not yet an available budget to execute some projects according to the new law.

"This is the first time we used the model. Previously projects could delay because the government was not ready to pay the contractor. Now the road that could wait for five years can now be complete in the shortest time possible thanks to the model that promotes public-private partnership,” he added.

About 4,000 jobs created

Yannick Kayijuka Zingiro, the Kigali Infrastructure Project (KIP) Project Director at NPD Ltd told The New Times that the project has to be implemented in six phases.

"Phase one is almost complete. Now we are implementing phase two,” he said.

At least 1,500 people got jobs in works for drainage and masonry construction while 2,200 people got jobs under sub-contracting in phase one of 70 Kilometres, he said.

There are 120 project staff at the office and sites.