He also disclosed that $83 million will be spent by the Government of The Gambia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Badiyya for the construction of the Bertil Harding Highway and telecommunication support for Gamtel and Gamcel will be provided, he affirmed.
Yankuba Dibba, CEO of OIC, noted that their primary role is to mobilise the necessary resources leading to the full success of the OIC summit.
He added that as a secretariat, they considered all the needs, capacity building and all the things that would enable The Gambia host a successful project.
“In the area of electricity and water projects, the works are in progress and we hope by end of April and May, tenders will be rolled out and we hope to assist Nawec in changing their transmitters which will help to improve their T and D,” he said.
Momodou Senghore, MD of NRA said the essence of the Bertil Harding Highway construction and of 20 roads is to create alternatives and to minimise traffic congestions.
“Traffic conditions are very chaotic and the whole idea is to come up with roads that would of course minimise congestion and shorten our traveling destinations,” he explained.
“We have already kick-started the small subsection over swampy areas of Sting Corner and it has been concreted,” he added.
Modou Ceesay, PS, Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure, said that the Bertil Harding Highway is 22 kilometers which stretches from Sting Corner to the Airport.
He revealed that the concept is to expand in a way and manner for two dual carriage ways with 10 metres reserved way.
“It’s an important concept infrastructure project not only to ease traffic congestion in the urban Greater Banjul Area but also a critical infrastructure component of OIC upcoming summit later in 2022,” he said.
He explained that the project preparation concept were developed and shared with partners in particular Kuwait Fund, Abu Dhabi and Badiyaa OPEC Fund that showed interest.
“OIC secretariat and NRA are tasked with a work in plenary studies to prepare appraisal report and while finalising the funding package, they also authorised us to embark on advanced procured process and can kick start the procurement of both contractors and consultants to submit for approval even before finalising the funding,” he said.
Sulayman Saho, chair of the committee, said they wanted the ministry to brief them on the funding and notification of the project.
“We wanted a general update on the OIC project and also thank them for taking us at the intended projects sites plus the 20 roads and the Bertil Harding Highway.”
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