Work at the prodigious Shs 4.3 trillion, 600Megawatts Karuma hydropower dam that started four months age has slugged abit after Sinohydro Corporation Ltd, the contractor of the project revealed it lacks skilled manpower to operate machines.
The Bujagali hydroelectric power station at the Bujagali Falls in River Nile. Skilled workers are in shortage at Uganda’s new Sh.4.3 trillion ($1.7billion) project Karuma.
This is putting more costs on them through training on job during the project duration they claim.
The eight month old construction of the 600 megawatts dam was commissioned by President Yoweri Museveni in August 2013, who said 85% of the funding will be procured by Sinohydro Corporation Ltd, a Chinese firm with a soft loan from Exim bank and the Uganda government will cater for the 15%.
The deputy project manager, Liu Jianguo, says the shortage is straining the project because they have to train workers on the job.
The Chinese contractor has up to 2,500 vacancies available.
Jianguo reveals that they currently have two Crane operators and would need more than 30 averagely.
They might be forced to source for foreign nationals – paid higher expatriate rates – to pad the human resource gap in among others electrical installation, welding and carpentry.