By Fatou Sillah
President Adama Barrow presided over a delivery forum with the Ministry of Works, Transport, and Infrastructure at the State House in Banjul on Thursday, September 8, 2023.
The forum was attended by the Minister of Works, Transport, and Infrastructure, Hon. Ebrima Sillah, as well as senior officials from the ministry. The aim of the forum was to update the president on the progress of the ministry’s road infrastructure projects, its plans for 2024 and beyond, and the challenges it faces in mobilizing funds.
After the forum, Minister of Works, Transport, and Infrastructure Ebrima Sillah spoke to journalists about the numerous projects that his ministry is undertaking in both rural and urban areas.
“As you know, the government of the Gambia is currently undertaking a number of construction projects,” he said. “These projects are taking place in both rural and urban areas, and we are confident that we will be able to complete most of them within the current timeframe.”
“The hakalang is currently over 70 percent progress. The new target is December 2023 to January 2024 for completion. The roads in Kaur area in the CRR north lot 2 of the north Bank as we called them those ones are complete now; they are just doing the root lining now, and hopefully by the 30th of September or the first of October we will finally inaugurate that road links in the CRR,” he said.
The minister further stated that they have numerous road projects underway in rural Gambia. He provided an update on the road project in Kiang West and Central Badibou.
“Within the rural areas also, we have a number of roads; the Kiang West roads are there, which is about 85 kilometers; we also have roads in Badibou the one going to central Badibou Salikeni and also the one from Kerewan to Njawara,those ones also are at significant level of progress; the one from Kerewan to Njawara is about 90 percent complete; at the end of the rainy season we will do the sealing,” he said.
Minister Sillah also provided updates on the OIC road project. He said that there were some challenges with the 50-kilometer road project in the urban areas, but that new measures and mechanisms had been put in place to ensure that the work was progressing quickly. He stated that the Bertil Harding Highway is at an advanced stage, with the first phase of the project, from Airport Junction to Senegambia, already 67% complete.
The minister addressed the much-discussed issue of sand shortage, which has been delaying construction projects. He said that the mining company at Denton Bridge is in the advanced stages of installing equipment to separate the sand from the clay content. The minister is hopeful that the laboratory tests will be positive and that the sand can be used for road construction and drainage. If this is the case, he believes the road construction companies will be given priority.