Emmanuel Nganou Djoumesi, the Minister of Public Works has announced that the construction works for the Babadjou-Bamenda road in Cameroon will resume at the end of this coming June or early July, at the latest.
The construction of this road, which spans the West and the North West regions of the Central African country, has been stalled since September 2017, when the then contractor, Sogea-Satom, a subsidiary of VINCI Group abandoned the site due to insecurities in the project area.
Reportedly, the equipment of the company was vandalized several times by the English-speaking secessionists occupying the North-West region of Cameron, and the lives of the employees working in the site endangered.
The way forward
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Going forward minister Nganou Djoumesi explained that the project will be divided into four lots for fast execution. The first section stretches from Babadjou to Matazem a distance of 17km and it is around 38% complete owing to the work carried out by Sogea-Satom. The second section which is about 18 kilometers stretches from Matazem to Bamenda while Section 3 covers the 4.930km bypass of the Bamenda cliff.
The 4th and the last lot encompasses the school of champions – agency Amour Mezam Junction -finance Junction- vetinary junction -hospital roundabout-food market-city chemist roundabout and vetinary junction. This has a total length of 11,990 kilometers.
Selection of contractors
The minister said that three out of the four contractors needed to carry out the project have been identified. Although he did not reveal their identity, he explained that they were selected on the basis of their skills, references, significant human resources, and their financial muscles.
“We have also considered the social anchoring and objectification that they have in the project area. This will allow them to carry out the work with limited difficulties and this will, in turn, accelerate the implementation of the project,”
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