By Lamin Njie
Assistant Information Officer-Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure
As part of measures by the Government of The Gambia to safeguard and protect our road heritage, the Government, through the Ministry of Transport, Works, and Infrastructure has signed a Concession Contract with Afrique Pesage- Gambia Limited on Axle load control program.
One of the main objective of the project was to control the weight of heavy trucks in a way to protect the road infrastructure of The Gambia from damages caused by heavy trucks, especially those taking goods from the Gambia to other countries.
As part of the Concession Contract, stakeholders such as the Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure, the contracting authority, Gambia Bureau for Weights and Measures, the National Roads Authority which is the implementing agency of the contract, recently travelled to the Metrology Control Station at Beroto to confirm that the machines they have installed at the permanent site are well tested, calibrated, and certified by the Bureau of weight and measures before they start operations at the site.
Afrique Pesage Group offers the establishment and operation of a system of preventive control, repressive, and deterrent for the road overload, resulting in the collection of taxes per kilo overload, under a form of a concession contract or lease, thus respecting community regulations of ECOWAS regarding weight and maximum templates allowed for heavy vehicles.
The equipment at the site were tested, confirmed, and certified by the National Bureau of Weights and Measures and operations will soon start.