Government to rehabilitate roads in the Southwest

Mirabel Azangeh Tandafor

The nightmares that used to characterise journeys in the Southwest Province, may soon come to an end, given that the government has finally embarked on the rehabilitation of some major roads linking this very strategic Province to the Littoral and West Provinces of Cameroon, and other neighbouring countries.

A launching ceremony, to this effect, recently took place in the cross-road town of Mutengene located in Fako Division, where the rehabilitation works will commence.
The Minister of Public Works, Martin Aristide Okouda, chaired the ceremony that was geared at officially giving the green-light for rehabilitation work to begin on the Mutengene-Muea 12 km stretch of road. This constitutes phase one of the project that envisages the rehabilitation of the Muea-Kumba road, Kumba-Mamfe, Mamfe-Ekok and Bachuoakagbe- Batibo roads.
It is worth noting that the Mutengene-Kumba road, especially, is not only helpful for users within the same Division, but for the whole nation because it leads to Kumba, which is a very important commercial town. Sad enough, this road has been left to deteriorate over the past year, beyond recognition.
It has become a serious obstacle to the movement of goods and persons, and consequently, retarded the economic advancement of the  Southwest Province, in particular. In his speech, Minister Aristide Okouda, in recognition of this fact, disclosed that it was after assimilating the concerns of the people of the Southwest Province that the Head of State designated his collaborators to seek appropriate means to facilitate the rehabilitation of its main roads.
He acknowledged the fact that the period of waiting might have been so long, but assured the population that they will not regret the results because the funding is available. He disclosed that the contractor-selection process for the Muea-Kumba section, which is expected to kick off before the year runs out, is already going on.
While calling on all road users to preserve the soon-to-be refurbished road against all forms of untimely degradation, once it is done, he reiterated that the goals of the rehabilitation process are to improve movement, ease trade with neighbouring countries and upgrade and modernise these roads "so that the degradation that constitutes a great handicap to free traffic, will become a thing of the past."
In a brief presentation of the project, Dr Emmanuel K Mondi, Director of the consultants' group BETA CONSULT, which is charged with feasibility studies, stated that the rehabilitation works on the Mutengene-Muea road is expected to last for 10 months and cost FCFA 4 billion.
On what rehabilitation actually is, Dr Mondi said: "it means redoing and restructuring the pavement, improving the drainage system, redoing certain bridges and replacing others". To him, since the road is far too deteriorated for casual maintenance alone, the sub-base of the new road is going to be made up of lava material.
It will need 6000 cubic metres of cuts, 3000 cubic metres of fills and 11.000 tons of bituminous concrete.  To ensure that all these are done, a control mission has been set up to survey the project, and which is entitled to FCFA 200 million of the total cost, will ensure that the contractor carries out quality work by not degrading the environment, staying within the budget and respecting the deadline of 10 months beginning June 2006.
He urged all users to use the road wisely, once it is finished.