BY NJINKENG MARTIN
The minister of public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Njoumessi has reiterated that theconstruction of422 km tarred roads target in 2022 is very certain.
The statement of the minister came at the end of the First Semester Road and Highway Project Review 2022, which stretching from March 21-23, 2022, took place in the main Conference Hall of the Emergence Building harbouring the Ministry of Public Works (MINTP) and a number of other ministries in central town, Yaounde.
After being grateful to the press for its keen interest on the evolution of road and highway construction projects in the country and for the massive presence of the press at last week event, the public works boss, reassured the public on the construction of 422 km tarred roads in 2022.
Hear him: “We shall effectively achieve the construction of 422 km tarred roads in 2022 just as planned and even more shall be done in this domain seeing the determination of construction companies on the field and their tremendous efforts to raise funds from banks for their respective contracts with the government”.
The SUN also spoke with the Head of Control Mission, Galim-Bamendjing-Foumbot–Bangante stretch of road (107km including the construction of two bridges), Mr. Mbo Franky Serein. The physical work progress rate of this project, he said stands at 95.2% while the delay consumption rate is 96.27%.
According to Mr. Meridja Ali, Head of Control Mission, Yaoundé-Douala Highway, two connection works are ongoing to make this highway completely usable by the third semester of the current year. Section I of this highway that involves the urban connection works from Yaounde passing through Nkolbesson (12.5km), he said registers 60% physical work progress rate. Meanwhile, he went on, the physical work progress rate of the connection works of Section II of the said highway, this time in Douala (13.5KM) is 30%.
Concerning the much talked of ring road project, the graduate from ENAM (1983), Emmanuel Nganou Njoumessi, echoed that eight companies have been selected for the job on the basis that government would no longer tolerate any security complaints as a pretext to halt or stop work. “We’re expecting their technical and financial proposals at the end of April 2022.Once we receive these documents, we’ll move to work with our financial partner, the African Development Bank’’, he added.
The deplorable Bamenda-Babadjou road was never left out during last week interview with the minister: “ as of the case of the Babadjou-Bamenda road, we’ve signed a contract in favour of BUNS Company. BUNS is getting things done on the field ensuring continuous circulation at the level of Babadjou-Matazem and Matazem-Welcome to Bamenda. For the urban section the consulting firm the World Bank selected to re-carve the project would be handing their reports on Marche29, 2022’’, he said.
The Sun Yaounde correspondent equally captured the voice of the minister on the 14 modern toll gates to be constructed at the entrances of selected cities of the country:“the first phase of the construction of 14 electronic toll gates is being financed by public-private partnership concluded with TURCAM Ltd. However, this company is still negotiating with a second financial partner after negotiations with a previous partner failed’’, exposed the lawyer by training, E. Nganou Njoumessi.
The three-day event was all about meeting with Project Team constitutive of construction companies, project engineers and heads of control missions, in order to identify the challenges the Project Team has been facing on the field since the start of the current year.
The minister was very satisfied as he had to listen to the complaints of the Project Team, gave instructions and new orientation where necessary, in order to ensure the delivery of services on time.