The Uganda Railways Cooperation (URC) has issued a strong warning to all Ugandans that have encroached, grabbed and illegally occupied its land.
In a statement that was released by the URC Management on April 1, URC revealed that the it has for so many years been faced by a challenge of Ugandans illegally settling on their land a thing that is ironic to their objective of revamping the railway transport sector
“In support of this initiative, URC must urgently put a stop to all the illegal occupation, grabbing and encroachment of its land country wide in order to operate safely and effectively in line with its statutory mandate,” reads part of the statement
Adding that the cooperation has therefore issued a six month ultimatum to the general public especially those encroached on the their lands to immediately vacate its lands effective this month
“Whoever is illegally occupying, has encroached upon or has grabbled railway land in any location with in Uganda must vacate the same with in a period of not more than 180 days a period that is equivalent to six months effective 1 April,” the statement further said.
“The concerned persons are sternly advised to comply to avoid unnecessary inconveniences,”
URC is the parastatal railway of Uganda and was formed after the break-up of the East African Railways Corporation (EARC) in 1977 when it took over the Ugandan part of the East African railways
URC also took over the passenger service operations of the meter gauge railway system in Uganda in February 2018 after Rift Valley Railways (RVR) lost its concession in Uganda in October 2017
The service was restored in and commuters on the service appreciated the ease and reasonable fares of the rail transport, compared to the commuter taxis, with the attendant traffic jams. A new Kampala to Port Bell route is being planned, to be added in the 2018/2019 financial year.