SC Villa: Government demolishes their training ground, Villa Park to create space for the construction of the Kampala Flyover project.
Villa Park, a training ground for Villa Sports Club senior team and a home ground to the club’s under team has been demolished to create space for the construction of the Kampala Flyover project.
UNRA identifies that the clearance spearheaded by their enforcement team is aimed at ensuring that space for the road is created in time for construction works to commence.
In addition to the pitch, other structures under demolition are found at Mukwano Road, Nsambya, Kitgum House and Centenary park where the flyover will be joining.
UNRA media manager, Allan Ssempebwa, said that as earlier planned, structures located near Villa Park, those that belonged to Uganda Railway were to be razed down to pave way for the road project that will take 36 months before being completed.
“The buildings near Villa Park belonged to Uganda Railways and have been razed down. A part of the pitch (Villa Park) to is to be demolished,” Ssempebwa said before adding that the remaining part of the playground would be inappropriate for football purposes.
“In any case, they can’t train from the remaining part as our construction works for the flyover project go on.”
Being financed using an Shs224 billion loan from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency(JICA), the project will be handled by a joint venture between Shimizu and Konoike, both Japanese contractors.
The flyover set to be built crossing through the Clock Tower, Shoprite, Nsambya to Mukwano junctions will also involve improving the existing road structure as well as widening of the 0.5 kilometres Queen’s way and Nsambya road.
New pedestrian bridges are also expected to be put in place at Clock Tower, Kibuli and Shoprite whereas the two junctions at Clock Tower and Shoprite will also be worked upon as part of the first phase of the Kampala flyover project.
Meanwhile, the second phase of the Kampala flyover will see a 2.9-kilometre flyover constructed from Kitgum House to Jinja road junction.
Appropriately, it will also see Mukwano, Jinja, Yusuf Lule, Access and Nile Avenue roads widened. This is all aimed at curbing down on traffic congestion within the country.
What next for SC Villa
The demolition of Villa Park means that Sc Villa will need to relocate to a new area where they can have their pre-match training.
As well, Villa Junior team has also been using this playground to host their home games.
This coupled with less than a week to start of the StarTimes Uganda Premier League, it means the financially unstable side has a limited period to spend money on renting another training ground.
By John Dalton Kigozi
