B’da-Babajou road to take 24 months

The minister of Public Works, Emmanuel NganouNjoumessi has officially launched reconstruction works on the Babajou-Bamenda stretch of the BamendaBafoussam Highway that is expected to cost about 61 billion FCFA co-financed by the  Cameroon government and the World Bank and has given firm instructions to contractor to respect the two years deadline given them.

                Emmanuel NganouNjoumessi accompanied by the Secretary of State in charge of roads, at the Ministry of Public Works Max AyinaOhandja and the World Bank Delegation while launching the project on May 12, 2017 said  President Paul Biya has as mission to dis-enclave the Northwest. He also revealed that as part of governments effort to ensure effective decentralization, construction of roads is gradually being transferred to municipal authorities.

                According to a release from the Ministry of public Works, The total road network involved in the project is 52 km comprising of  35Km between Bamenda  in the Northwest and Babajou in the West region and 17 km of inner city roads within Bamenda.

                Other fall outs of the project include the construction of a weighing station, leisure spots, a toll gate, of markets and pipe borne water lines along the road and the tarring of 50km of rural farm to market roads. The contract would be executed by the French company SOGEA SATOM to the tune of 37 billion Frs CFA.

                Compensation of victims whose property would be affected by the road has already begun. The minister said work will soon begin on the  Yaounde-Bafoussam  stretch of the road.

                Emmanuel NganouNjoumessi  and his team also visited some road construction sites such as the 60.5 Bamenda-Babessi,  Ndop-Kumbo sections of the ring road  and the 20km second entrance into Bamenda through Alahtening, Baba II, Baforchu and Bali into Bamenda. The at the end of the tour he revealed that the government has allocated more than FCFA 5 billion to ensure the consistency of works on the Ring Road and the pavement of other roads.

                During  an evaluation meeting on Road infrastructure in the North West  on Wednesday May 17, the Minister equally got first-hand information about other roads in the region where the Regional Delegate of Public Works for North West, Ndang Denis disclosed that according to the 2016 road maintenance programme in the region, work on some roads are ongoing while others are yet to start.

                He said the government has allocated more than FCFA 5 billion to ensure the consistency of works on the Ring Road and the pavement of other roads.