A Chinese firm, Chongqing International Construction Corporation (CICO) Limited has replaced all the solar-powered streetlights that were rejected in Masaka city over poor quality.
The contractor replaced all the streetlights along the 4.8 kilometers of Broadway road, which runs from Nyendo roundabout through town to the Masaka-Mbarara bypass, following a dispute from Masaka City Council leadership who rejected the lights.
The installation of the street lighting system was part of the 39.5 billion Shillings project for major repairs of the 7.3 kilometers of roads, that were completed in March this year.
However, ahead of the handover of the project works in March, the Masaka City Roads and Technical Works Committee raised a red flag and rejected streetlights saying they were substandard.
The committee, which is chaired by the City Mayor Florence Namayanja, wrote protest petitions to the Minister of Works and Transport, Uganda National Roads Authority-UNRA, and the Police, demanding that the contractor be investigated and be compelled to remove the lights, least the leadership would mobilize the community to pull them down.
According to Namayanja, the lights could not meet the quality specifications as indicated in the contract documents signed with the government before funding She accused the contractor of duping the local urban council when he stealthily installed 30-watt bulbs and 25-voltage batteries instead of the 60-watt and 45-voltage respectively as indicated in the contract agreement.
With support from the locals including the business community who threatened to vandalize the poles, the leaders argued the lights could not produce the preferred intensity of light to serve the purpose, hence demanding that the contractor redoes the work, a week after the lights were installed.
The contractor has complied with the demand and replaced all 195 lights as well as reduced the radius between the light poles.
Isaac Okello, the Contracts Administrator declined to speak about the streetlights in specific terms, only indicating that their teams are still executing their project works.
Namayanja said that their demands were intended to have real value for the money spent on the project. She says that they are going to work with the technical teams to examine the specifications of new lights to ensure that they meet the standards.
Vincent Kasumba, the Chairperson of the Masaka City Development Forum, which is also responsible for monitoring public projects, indicates that compared to previous ones, the new streetlights are brighter.
“Besides security, these lights are meant to enable our people to extend their working hours through the night, which will translate into more earnings. We are noticing that in areas where the new lights have been installed, the communities are also adjusting,” he says.
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