By Yunus S Saliu
As Minister of Transport, Works, and Infrastructure (MOTWI), Honourable Ebrima Sillah continued his countrywide inspection of road projects across the country he reiterated that the government, through his Ministry, will do all the major roads in Basse, though “not at a single time.”
The Honourable Minister gave this assurance on Tuesday, 28th January 2025 when he visited the Upper River Region Governor’s Residence and EPC Lot 1 under the Governor’s building and rural roads category, he was accompanied on this tour by the Permanent Secretary and senior officials from MOTWI, the National Road Authority (NRA), and road project contractors. It is a weeklong tour starting from the 26th and will end on 31st January 2025.
The main objective of the ongoing countrywide inspection of the road projects is to assess the progress of construction works and gather firsthand updates on them.
Minister Sillah noted that they will build the roads through a phased approach and this will allow other projects including additional roads in Basse Town especially critical routes where there are lots of major settlements outside of Basse Town and constrained by a lack of roads to the point they could not access markets.
Meanwhile, Minister Sillah disclosed that the Lot 1 road construction projects span from the Upper River Region (URR) and part of the Central River Region (CRR) and it is 76km contracted to Gai Construction and the consultant is CityScape Associates, while it was divided into fifteen sections of roads.
Currently, he noted, the contractor is currently working on six roads, which include Basse Manneh Kunda-Demba Kunda-Gambisara Road and it is 13.93km, Angalfuta Road – 1.76km, Basse Manneh Kunda and Basse Road project -1.6km, Dampha Kunda-Tambasansang Road – 9.2km, Chamoi-Dampha Kunda – 2.8km and Brikamaba-Boiram-NjobenRoad – 6.33km.
According to him, in Basse alone, 62 to 63 kilometers of roads are under construction “including Basse Town where we are doing concrete roads to give a facelift to the town,” noting that the area has been neglected for a very long time, and “the infrastructure here, actually, has been neglected here since independence. That is the reason His Excellency President Adama Barrow thought it necessary to start the modernization of passages as he did in Banjul.”
He reassured that “steadily, we will do all the major roads in Busse, not at a single time, though, but we will approach it through phases. In addition, also, we have a lot of major settlements outside of Basse Town itself, and they could not access markets and facilities here because it is very difficult for them to traverse between Bassse Town and some of these villages, a good example is Tambasangsang, Numuyel, Dampha Kunda, Manneh Kunda, among other ongoing roads project.”
The MOTWI Minister appreciated the contractor and consultant for tremendous progress making in the project, and also “our team of engineers that are on these projects. But the thanks at its peak goes to His Excellency President Adama Barrow who, through his foresight and support, has made it possible for us to embark on this very critical road project.”
Asa Awuku, the Resident Engineer for Lot 1 disclosed that overall the project is 76 kilometers though it was originally 69 an additional road was added, taking it to 76km “and we had made substantial progress of about 36%, the majority are concrete roads but outside the built-up areas, we have double surfacing and the project is expected to finish around September, October 2026.”
Daot Tessema, Project Manager for GAI Construction assured of best quality while noting that lots of communities will benefit from the roads when it is complete.
Ousman Sanyang, Managing Director of the National Road Authority (NRA) disclosed that road building now will provide an opportunity for regional integration and trade “which is important for this country.”
He reminded residents of Basse about the floodplain issue while assured that they would raise the embankments, thus river busting in the rainfall and river flow issue in terms of regional weather, weather issues have been a problem in Basse for a long time.