THE GAMBIA TRANSPORT MINISTER CALLS FOR BCC STRONG PARTNERSHIP

The Minister for Transport, Works and Infrastructure, Hon. Ebrima Sillah, during his regional tour, visited the construction of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Mausoleum; the Banjul Rehabilitation Project (drainage, roads, and sewage), and the Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) respectively.

Speaking to journalists, the minister said: “I am extremely happy with what I have seen so far because the work is progressing well and would like to encourage the consultant, the contractor, and the staff of the ministry that are all working here as a team.”

“I want to call on the City Council to work with the ministry and other stakeholders so that the roads that have already been done can match with the cleansing exercise that is supposed to be done regularly.”

“I know the City Council is doing a very good job and as a result, I encourage them to have a way of strengthening partnership with the ministry so that we can collectively make the city much cleaner and nicer,” he pointed out.

Hon. Sillah stated that he wants to see a very strong partnership between the City Council and other stakeholders to ensure that the progress that has already been registered on the ongoing works can be sustained.

As a government, he noted, ‘we want to be seen to be quickly responding to the needs of the people and for that reason, we want to call on the contractor to expedite ongoing works in some of the areas that they have not started working.’

“On behalf of the President; his government and the people of The Gambia, we thank all those that are involved in this project and doing everything possible to deliver this project and on time.”

Representing the ministry on the construction of the Mausoleum, Omar Jarjusey said currently the project is going as expected although they have registered a delay due to some technical investigations that they were sanctioned by the ministry to do.

Mr. Karamo Jaiteh, a resident engineer representing Studi International for Africa on the Banjul Rehabilitation, Sewage, and Drainage Project, said the project was launched in February 2019, and thereafter the contractor started the project in March 2019.

He added that the project started with the rehabilitation of 27 roads as an initial contract and thereafter, there was an amendment for the addition of 17 roads. He noted that today, the initial contract has been completed by 97% with the amendment by 78%.

According to Mr. Jaiteh, the project has three components: rehabilitation of the roads; rehabilitation of drainage, and also rehabilitation of the sewage system.

In addition, he said, in Banjul, the problem has always been that the drains are always filled up with rubbish; sand and that therefore stops the flow of water which results in the flooding that the city has faced over the years.

The minister with his delegation proceeded to visit the Gambia Ports Authority, where the managing director Ousman Jobarteh, said three of the urgent components at the ports are the extension of the jetty spacing from 300 meters to 345 meters to be able to handle three big ships at one time.

He added that the other urgent component is that the Port is surrounded by residential property and their expansion is constrained by sea wash because of the hydrodynamics within the area.

The GPA managing director further stated that their only natural expansion is to acquire those properties, demolish the buildings and create a new container terminal.

He continued that the third urgent component is Port digitalization. He said the Port has reached volumes in the industry which calls for IT solutions in their business processes.

Mr. Jobarteh posited that while they were doing the scoping and to realize maximum value from those components, it was realized that other good activities needed to be added to the project components such as the widening of the Bond Road which is the main access that leads from the highway to the Ports and also to relocate the Banjul Ferry Terminal.