By Mustapha Jarju
Afrique Pesage Gambia Limited in partnership with the Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure, on Tuesday 18th July 2023, launched a weighting site in Kembujeh village West Coast Region (WCR).
The newly built Kembujeh weighting site is geared towards enhancing the durability of roads by controlling the weight carried by vehicles plying the Trans-Gambia highway.
Overload penalties attached to the new efforts by the Ministry of Transport indicated that overloaded vehicles will pay D350 per ton surcharge for domestic traffic, a D1,000 per ton surcharge for international traffic, and a fine of D2,500 for parking fees per Day.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Principal Transport Policy Officer at the Ministry of Transport, Sainabou Huma said, in recent years studies have shown that the presence of overloaded vehicles on roads can increase payment costs by more than 100%, therefore causing a devastating effect on Gambian roads.
Madam Huma said it was based on this reason that the transport Ministry in partnership with the Afrique Pasage Gambia Limited deemed it befitting to sign a contract on the 30th of August 2017 on the Axle load control program.
“This will give an assurance to the drivers that the vehicles they are operating are complying and also safe for needful purposes. And the weight control will avoid vehicle overloading. Therefore promote the safety of the road users as well as minimize the damage caused by overload,” she stated.
On his part, the Managing Director of the National Road Authority (NRA), Sulayman Sumareh mentioned the essence of having a weight station with a safety measure that goes along with the protection of lives by ensuring safe transportation for the traveling population.
General Administrator of Afrique Pesage Gambia Ltd, SereigneFaye, on behalf of Groupe Afrique Pesage expressed gratitude to the Gambian government for the support in ensuring the smooth running of the project since inspections.
He added that the Kembujeh Weighting Site is anticipating the protection of the road through prevention by the control of Axle Load, noting the total weight and the size of the heavy goods vehicles having to use the roads.
“This is why we are committed to supporting the Gambia by deploying our new technology systems throughout the territory of the Gambia to control and protect these beautiful road infrastructures carried out of the cost of billions of the state budget,” he stressed.