The construction of the Crested Crane Hotel at Uganda Hotel and Tourism Training Institute (UHTTI) in Jinja District nears completion. This is according to project coordinator, Dr. John-Marie Kyewalabye of the Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project (CEDP).
Dr. Kyewalabye, said that 80% of the work has been completed with the remaining on track. Since UHTTI is the only government institution that specializes in hotel and hospitality, the government deemed it prudent to develop the facility so as to improve the quality of the staff.
Upon completion, the new facility will feature training kitchens, training restaurants, language laboratories, hotel bedrooms, and other training facilities. Initially, the project was supposed to be completed by April 2019 but fell behind schedule because of the two months they lost before the actual works commenced.
Dr. Kyewalabye explained that they had to comply with mandatory things like environmental social safeguards, which are sanctioned by the National Environment Management Authority. Other issues that caused the delay he said were mobilization of people and equipment, some redesigns which needed time to be approved and a review of boundaries for the hotel land.
Roko Construction Limited, supervised by Arch Design Limited is implementing the project whereas (CEDP) is the borrower’s representative. The total cost of the project is approximately US $102.5m for the five components including land administration and management reform, business registration and licensing reform, tourism competitive development, and match grant facility and project implementation. The World Bank together with the government of Uganda is funding the project at a tune of US $100m and US $2.5m respectively.
