KURA Director General Engineer Silas Kinoti addressing the press in Nakuru on Friday. [Photo/Brian Itava]
The Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) has embarked on a 1.9 billion shillings road modernization project that is expected to link several residential and commercial centers within Nakuru town.
The 22-kilometer project is expected to link roads serving Menengai and Milimani Estates and Nakuru Prisons and London Estates in one cluster while another cluster will target Industrial Area, Naka, Free -Area and Mwariki Estates.
Speaking in Nakuru when he toured ongoing works, KURA Director General Engineer Silas Kinoti told the press that the project was part of a larger project worth 9.8 billion shillings for the upgrade of 137 kilometers of road network.
“KURA is committed to promoting urbanization in rural towns as a way of helping counties attain the desired impetus for urbanization,” said Kinoti.
“In the past KURA has centralized most of its activities in the capital city but at the onset of devolution, the agency is looking towards elevating road standards across the 47 counties as leverage to commercially competitive urban areas,” he added.
Kinoti said that in the ongoing phase of the programme, several other counties that include Mombasa, Bungoma, West Pokot, Lamu, Vihiga, Uasin Gishu, Makueni and Busia among others were set to benefit.
“Under the project, contractors will be expected to construct roads of bitumen standard, install standard pipe culverts and undertake soil erosion prevention works,” he said.
Kinoti said that the contractor will also be expected to undertake regular maintenance works for 36 months upon completion of the project