The Kampala Business and Industrial Park at Namanve near Kampala on the Kampala-Jinja road, which has finally taken off will see US$2 billion worth of investment projects set up at the 894 hectare park.

"We have been on the drawing board for this pioneer industrial park for sometime now but we are now happy to say it has taken off," said Mr. Arthur Tukahirwa, the director of the industrial parks development division of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA).

Tukahirwa said UIA has sifted through 2,000 applications of industrialists interested in space, available on a 30-year lease, to come up with just 163 investment projects that fit the criteria of the type of investor they want to take up space at the park.

"UIA has so far pre-qualified 163 investors for the Namanve park. If all the 163 projects are implemented as planned, the combined planned investment value will be US$2 billion," Tukahirwa said.

The projects, Tukahirwa said have been drawn from different sectors ranging from agri-business types of projects to light-clean industries. He explained that it is the reason that UIA is putting in place the requisite infrastructure.

The park will also have a planned inland port as well as space for an export-processing zone (EPZ) to especially accommodate industries engaged in producing for the export trade.

Delivering an update on the project in Kampala last week, Tukahirwa reported that UIA has signed a Ush9.7 billion ($5.7 million) contract with Spencon Services Limited to construct 15 kilometres of road in the park. Spencon will also carry out work on a 2.6km stretch on Jinja Road to ease access into the park.

The park has been zoned, with the commercial area close to the Kampala-Jinja road. The park will have exhibition areas, shopping malls, fuelling stations and shopping centres.

Phase one of the construction works has started with the 124-hectare South A Estate, where 12 kilometres of roads will be built. Other areas include the 192-hectare South B Estate and South C with 360 hectares.

Funding for the 15 kilometres of roads is part of the $30m that has been provided by the World Bank. The Uganda government contributed some $3m of the $30m fund and some of that money will be used to build a power line, water and sewerage services and street lighting.

The Namanve park, which is following on from the smaller Luzira industrial park are the beginning of an industrialisation plan by the Uganda government that intends to develop 25 industrial parks across the country.

In the 2007/08 financial year budget, finance minister Dr. Ezra Suruma allocated Ush16 billion ($9.4 million) to kick-start infrastructure development in a park that already has Century Bottling Company, the bottlers of Coca Cola products in Uganda.

Tukahirwa said the first phase of construction will also see the commissioning of a special power sub-station. Work on a 50-megawatt (MW) thermal power plant at Namanve is also nearing completion.

Uganda's National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NW&SC) is also building a water and sewerage line for the park.