By Amadou Jadama
The Minister of Transport, Works and Infrastructure told journalists recently that Niumi Hakalang loop and secondary roads project in North Bank Region is one of the best roads in the country and challenged the critics to visit the road.
Ebrima Sillah was speaking during the recently-concluded nationwide tour of ongoing roads construction project sites.
The Hakalang road construction is one of the most storied infrastructure projects undertaken by the Barrow administration. Despite numerous challenges, it has made significant progress. The construction of the 84.5km road was contracted to CSE and PACE/GAMECS.
Minister Sillah described the project as part of his ministry’s efforts to deliver world class infrastructure in the country.
“We have proven the doubters wrong. Today we are almost at the finishing end of the main loop of Hakalang and other secondary loops. Hopefully, in the next two months those two will be finally done and dusted. We came from a long way. “A lot of people used this road to hit at and criticise the government saying we were not committed to delivering. Today, the road is almost completed, and we challenge them to come here, take pictures or to come with any expert in road infrastructure to look at the quality of work that has gone into this road. All what we can say is that this road is one of the best roads in this country. It can withstand the test of time and a lot of quality efforts and energy have gone into making this road what it is right now.
“President Barrow has already kalang Hakalang (meaning President Barrow has tackled Hakalang). Today we are all happy and to come and see this road and be proud as Gambians that with our own local funds, we have been able to develop infrastructure that we are all proud of. This is an exceptionally very good road.”
Minister Sillah said his ministry will continue to provide similar infrastructure to other parts of the country and ensure that the 365kms under construction are delivered on time.
He applauded NRA, the consultants and the contractors and President Barrow for his unwavering support and commitment to the infrastructural development in the country particularly, the roads.”
Works Minister and his delegation also visited the 10km Kerewan-Njawara road project contracted to Gai Construction Company and inspected the Banni-Salikenni-Njaba Kunda loop road project. This road which is part of the NRA road maintenance project is 17km, and is contracted to Bajam Enterprise Limited a Gambian owned company with NRA as the consultants.
