Uganda Railways to continue demolishing illegal encroachers ahead of SGR construction

Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) said it will continue to demolish old and new structures on its land in preparation for the rehabilitation of the Meter Gauge Railway from Malaba to Kyengera and from Tororo to Pakwachi through Gulu and the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Kampala to Kasese.

In a statement released on Wednesday, URC said that in recent months, wrong people have intensified illegal activities within the railway reserves. This, URC said, defeats the government’s objective of revamping Railway Transport in the country.

“Therefore, effective 1st August 2022, URC embarked on continuous demolition of all structures, removal of all activities or settlements that came after the cutoff date from all railway reserves nationwide,” URC said.

The Corporation said will prosecute all encroachers until the vice stops. “Similarly, in collaboration with all Security Agencies URC will arrest and prosecute all vandals and their customers/accomplices along all the railway corridors. The Public is requested to cooperate,” it warned.

Away from encroachers, vandals and demolitions, URC revealed that received funds from the government to rehabilitate the Meter Gauge Railway mentioned above and are slated to receive funds in the near future to construct the SGR from Kampala to Kasese.

“In preparation for these projects, URC has conducted various exercises among which is the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) whose cutoff date was May 2022, held meetings with various Local and National Leaders, defended URC and won some cases where some encroachers opted to seek legal redress, signed off some commitments to stop the encroachment with some of the stakeholders and also carried out public sensitization to stop encroachment and vandalism.”