FCFA 20 bln to be squandered on Y’de-L’be road rehabilitation

The government has made available FCFA 20 billion for the rehabilitation of the Yaounde-Douala-Limbe-Idenau Road in 2016, while a huge amount will be used to rehabilitate the same road early next year.

The information about the separate road rehabilitation projects is contained in a document given to reporters during the visit of the Minister of Public Works to Douala from May 9 to 11, 2016. The document presents measures taken by the government to maintain the National Road No. 3, ahead of the 2016 and 2019 African Cup of Nations that will be hosted by Cameroon.

The government has already funded the visibility studies for the maintenance of the road and launched calls for tenders for the project that has been divided into three sections.

Section I of the project stretches from Yaounde to the Ndoupé Bridge, covering a distance of 106 Kilometres, while Section II stretches from the Ndoupé Bridge to Dibamba Bridge on a distance of 109 Kilometres and the third section from Bekoko through Limbe to Idenau covers a distance of 93 Kilometres.

The section from Dibamba Bridge on the outskirt of Douala to Bekoko is not included in the said National Road No.3 Project, since the section already falls under two other road projects that are intended to decongest the East and West axis into and out of Douala.

The Yaounde-Douala-Limbe-Idenau road rehabilitation project, according to the document, will gulp over FCFA 20.567 billion. The amount does not include the cost of feasibility studies.

It is also stated in the document that the Mutengene-Douala stretch of National Road No. 8, is also to undergo maintenance this year as part of preparations for the 2016 AFCON, as Buea and Muea will provide training grounds and lodging facilities to some teams.

The document from the Ministry of Public Works also states that the maintenance work on the three stretches on the National Road No. 3 will be going on simultaneously with another feasibility studies for a rehabilitation project that will start on the same road after the end of the 2016 AFCON.

Feasibility studies on the Yaounde-Douala stretch started last year and will end in June 2016. As for the Bekoko- Limbe-Idenau stretch, the contract for the feasibility study was signed last month by the Ministry of Public Works, and the project will take seven months.