Special report: ‘NRA will never compromise on quality, standard of roads in Gambia’

“The NRA and by extension the ministry of Works will never compromise on anything that is of quality in terms of road construction in the country,” he said. “We have engineers that are working constantly with consultants and contractors across the country with the objective of ensuring that all roads that are under construction in the country are of quality and standard. We will continue to ensure that consultants and contractors work according to the design of the roads project that they are contracted to do.”

The country’s top engineer made these remarks recently during the just concluded nationwide tour of the Minister of Work, Transportation and Construction. The works Minister, accompanied by technocrats at his ministry and officials from the NRA, took a tour visiting roads project sites across the country with a view to accessing the roads and seeing the level of progress in terms of the on-going construction.

The NRA, he added, will continue to ensure that the basic requirement of ensuring that there is standard and quality roads are adhered to at all times, describing it as “non-negotiation”.

Commenting on the road construction that is on-going in Kabada, for the first time since nationhood, he said, upon the completion of the over 100km of roads, it will boost the economic activities within the area thereby facilitating cross-border trading and connecting the communities within the area.

“As usual, we are concerned about the implementation and the technical aspects as far as works are concerned,” he said. “Therefore, at this juncture, it appears that they contractors are doing a good job.”

Janneh was, however, quick to add: “But again, we are making a recommendation for them to make a change for the consideration in using the Irish-crossing in some of the low areas whereby water needs pass-by and changing its converts.”

Irish-crossing, he went on, is suitable for some applications but not all. “Therefore, in this case, converts are a suitable consideration  and that is the recommendation that we have made. This is going to add a little cost in the project for the fact that it was not part of the initial inception of the project.”

Janneh added: “However, what is of paramount importance is the fact that we have roads that are of quality and standards. Sometimes it’s not about cost, but it’s about effectiveness, and durability and ensuring that it meets the minimum standard for longevity of the proposed lifetime expectancy of the roads.

“With that being considered, it’s important that we make recommendations for converts than iris-crossing because there is a lot of water that virtually comes through here mainly from Senegal of which we can’t control the source. Therefore, what we can do at the moment is to mitigate factors that shall affect people in the area and it will also help in the durability and sustainability of the roads after it’s completed.”

Ebrima Sillah, the minister of Work, Transportation and Construction, underscored the significance of the Kabada roads to the Government of The Gambia under the leadership of President Barrow.

President Barrow and his government, he said, is committed to ensuring that the entire country benefits from its infrastructural projects and other developmental initiatives from the government.

Developmental projects especially in terms of roads projects, he went on, have spread across the country in different parts, adding: “This speaks volumes about the commitment of the president and his government in terms of bringing development to the doorsteps of every Gambian.

“These road projects will definitely bring Kabada to the rest of the country and also enhance connectivity, enhance access to community services and also enhance access to national health services in the region.”

Minister Sillah further added: “In fact, while the roads are under construction, you can see a lot of trucks are coming in Kabada with watermelon and other products that have already been harvested by farmers. Before, this was almost a no-go-area in terms of access to roads. Basically, what this shows is that where you have good roads, all other services will follow like electricity and water among others.”

In addition to electricity, he stated, the ministry of Agriculture is also coming in terms of provision of community gardens so that women of the area will benefit from the state-of-the-art gardens that go with solars among others.

“The communities of Kabada,” Sillah added, “very much appreciated this project and the president. Yes we are a political government, but there is no politics on this because development is a right and that is why the president has recognised this. Again, since he came into power, there are five developmental agenda that his government is massively working on, which is infrastructure, electricity, water, education and agriculture.”

Concluding he said: “We are satisfied with the level of progress on the on-going road construction in Kabada, but we want to see it expedite. We want to finish the project before time but with quality. So whatever observation the consultant and our technicians made during this visit or during their weekly site visit, the recommendations are put into considerations.”