By Politico Staff writer
The Government of Sierra Leone, through the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA), has awarded the contract to Consulting Engineers Group (CEG) Limited for the Design Review and Construction Supervision for the Upgrading of the Kailahun-Buedu Road.
The contract between SLRA and CEG was signed by the Authority’s Director General, Engineer Amara Jambai Kanneh, and Director Bernard Obika at the China Henan International Corporation Co. Ltd (CHICO) campsite in Gbalahun village, Kailahun District on Thursday, August 31, 2023.
The contract requires CEG to assist SLRA in providing effective supervision, management, and monitoring of the execution of the civil works on the project which is carried out by CHICO.
Before signing the contract, the Director General of SLRA noted that despite the country having recently been through elections, President Julius Maada Bio is committed to constructing the Kailahun- Koindu - Guinea-Liberia Border Road. He encouraged the community people to take the opportunity of the road project by embarking on large-scale farming to increase their production capacities and boost the national economy.
"We are connecting you to the cities so that when you harvest your products you can easily transport them to bigger markets in the country, not to smuggle them to neighboring countries as you used to do," he cautioned.
The Director of CEG, Dr. Bernard Obika, thanked the Government of Sierra Leone for choosing his company to supervise the road works.
"We have supervised many road works across the world, including those done in Zambia by CHICO, and I can confirm that they do very good work," he said.
Both companies committed to working together and ensuring that the road works were done according to the design of the project.
While addressing the locals, the Minister of Works and Public Assets, Dr. Denis Sandy, said that President Bio was very passionate about road development, especially the Kailahun-Koindu - Guinea-Liberia Border Road Project, due to the many benefits that it stands to bring to the country.
He encouraged the community people to embrace and protect the project due to the direct benefits that they would gain from it and assured the land-owning families that the government is committed to compensating them for their properties.
The Deputy Director General of SLRA, Engineer Alfred Jalil Momodu, told the land-owning families that SLRA wanted to carefully clarify the measurement of the land and their ownership, especially for properties with multiple claims of ownership, as it does not want to pay compensation to the wrong people.
The Town Chief of Gbalahun, Chief Korjie thanked the Minister and SLRA for addressing most of the concerns of the land-owning families.
CHICO is far advanced in the site establishment, including quarry installations and the construction of a site for the supervision engineers which is scheduled for completion by the end of October.
CEG is an Indian international infrastructure engineering consulting company that provides services in design, planning, engineering, consulting, and construction management solutions to highways, bridges, tunnels, railways, metros, buildings, and water resources.
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