National Development Implementation Technical Committee (NDITC) concluded a two-day extensive inspection of the National government funded mega infrastructure projects in Mombasa County Wednesday.
One of the two teams of the NDITC committee inspected flagships projects in Changamwe and Jomvu sub counties including the 43 kilometers Mombasa- Mariakani road project with six lanes and several inter-sections.
They inspected Sh8.5 African Development Bank and Government of Kenya funded dualling of Mombasa- Kwa Jomvu road project, the Sh15.6 billion European Investment Bank and German development bank funded Kwa Jomvu- Mariakani road project and the Sh5.2 billion dualling of Magongo road, which included expansion of the Port Reitz, and Moi International Airport Access roads.
Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHa) Assistant Project Engineer Anthony Omach told the team that some of the success stories of the Mariakani- Mombasa road project included eradication of the perennial traffic along the Mombasa- Nairobi highway.
Omach further indicated the road has also provided several routes for trucks to transport cargo from the Mombasa port to several destinations within and outside the country.
“It is expected that the travel hours between Mariakani and Mombasa town will be less than 2 hours. Jomvu to Mombasa CBD is now less than 30 minutes from 2 hours. The Magongo dualling will serve as evacuation for Mombasa port users,” he added.
State House Chief of Staff Nzioka Mwaita who led the team lauded the KeNHa technical team for exemplary supervision work of the roads projects.
Nzioka said his team has witnessed the impact of the road on the efficiency of the operation of Mombasa port through enhanced movement of cargo and cure of perennial snarl ups.
“The construction work is 98 per cent complete. We thank our technical team and the contractors for the good work. This road has already improved movement of cargo out of the port and traffic between Mariakani- Miritini- Kwa Jomvu, Mikindani and Changamwe,” added Mwaita.
He assured residents and businesses affected by the road projects that the National Land Commission (NLC) and other State agencies would fast track evaluation of their property and process their compensation.
“The team will also write a report on the development impact report on the local population and share with President Uhuru Kenyatta,” he added.
The team also inspected Technical University of Mombasa’s a four-storey building, state of the art school of medicine funded at the tune of Sh266 million.
In her brief, the university Vice Chancellor Prof Leila Abubakar said they required an additional Sh306 million for furnishing and installation of laboratories equipment in order to admit over 500 first lot of the students.
“Our new school of medicine will admit 560 students in September this year. We received 12 million from a Belgium partner and we are looking for more support from the stakeholders,” added Prof Leila
Prof Leila appealed to the NDITC team to help her administration address the challenges grabbing of the university land adding that there were two active court cases over squatters living on the university land.
A member of the team, Principal Secretary Prof Colleta Suda, assured Prof Leila that her team would look into the university challenges and ensure the new school of medicine kicked off as planned.
“This new school of medicine is one of the flagship projects that this technical committee is committed to ensure it is successful. We had a similar challenge with the Kenyatta University, which we addressed,” added Prof Suda.
The team also pledged to persuade The National Treasury to provide additional funding to the university to facilitate several expansion projects.
By Galgalo Bocha
