A 400kV line from Karuma to Tororo reaches construction start, and eastern Uganda's industrial load gains a route.

For an industrial buyer drawing load in Eastern Uganda or Greater Kampala, the line meant to carry Karuma's output towards their site is now a construction start rather than a plan. The transmission company held a groundbreaking ceremony on 22 October 2026 at the Ntinda substation in Kampala for the 400kV link between Karuma and Tororo.

The works are costed at about EUR 342.59 million, and their purpose is to move output from the 600MW Karuma hydropower plant into the east of the country and the capital's wider load centre. What is being built is roughly 347 kilometres of double-circuit line at 400kV, crossing 15 districts, together with a new border substation at Tororo, a substation at Ntinda and an extension of the substation at Karuma.

Funding arrangements involve the Swedish government, acting through its export credit agency. The transmission company has begun implementation: the site has been handed to the contractor, and disclosure and compensation are under way for the people whose land the route affects. Once the line is in service, the company expects better bulk supply to industry and business, and a further route for cross-border trade within the Eastern Africa Power Pool.

Assessment: a groundbreaking fixes the start of a build programme, not the date power flows, and it is the land access and compensation work along a route of that length that most often sets when energisation actually arrives.

For large power users, a construction start is the first date in a transmission programme that can be planned around rather than hoped for, and it is worth asking the transmission company where your connection or wheeling request sits against this line's energisation. If your supply agreement assumes a constrained eastern corridor, check what it allows you to revisit once the new substations are in service.