Uganda: Hima Cement managing director, Mr Mbuvi Ngunze, has said government should increase the use of cement in road construction. He said that experts in road construction now recommend the use of cement as it stabilises the soil and helps build stronger and durable roads.
"Studies in 98 countries by the World Bank indicate that there is a significant statistical relationship between the density of paved road infrastructure and economic development," he said at the Uganda Institute of Professional Engineers (UIPE) seminar recently.
Paved roads, he said, could dramatically increase economic activities in rural areas and help in their transformation. "Analysts in the sector say that though investment in paved network in Uganda in the last 18 years has appeared impressive, there has not been a significant increase in per capita density of paved network," he said.
Uganda has a total of 2,500 kilometers of paved network, which translates to a density of 8400 people per km. Uganda’s entire road network consists of 69,800km, which includes 10,000km of national road network, 27,000km of district roads, and 2800km of urban roads and 30,000km of rural roads.
