NTU TA Team commences needs assessment phase in Ugandan Railway project
Completion of inception phase
The EU-funded Consulting Services for Technical Assistance for Capacity Building to Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) commenced on the 11th of November 2019 and will be in motion for 20 months till June 2021. The NTU Team completed the inception phase in mid- December and held a presentation of the inception report to URC and other stakeholders on the 16th of January 2020.
This particular phase was focused on understanding the current state of URC and the transport sector in Uganda generally.
The project is coordinated within the premises of URC, which is under the Ministry of Works and Transport.
The Needs Assessment
The NTU team commenced the Needs Assessment phase on 17th January 2020 and has held meetings with several departments already and plans on meeting all the departments within the URC over the next 2 weeks.
NTU Team in a meeting with a department of URC
This phase is aimed at determining the training needs of the employees and the major problems they encounter during the course of executing their duties. A Training Needs Assessment Report will be prepared following these meetings.
NTU Team is also discussing with URC the potential and opportunities for freight transport across Lake Victoria in rail wagon ferries which have existed for the past 60 years. There is a need for revitalization of the link across Lake Victoria that represents a key section of the railway network in East Africa and could allow freight to reach Mombasa and Dar es Salam ports by sustainable and cost-efficient rail transportation.