BARROW, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA AT THE LAYING OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF 50KM URBAN ROADS PROJECT IN THE WEST COAST REGION Your Excellency, the Vice President of the Republic of The Gambia, Honourable Speaker of the National Assembly, Honourable National Assembly Members, Members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps, Senior Civil Servants and Heads of Government Agencies, Service Chiefs, Regional and Local Government Officials Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, It is with great pleasure and hope for a better Gambia for all of us that I join you this morning to lay the foundation stone for a fifty-kilometre Urban Roads Project in the West Coast Region and This is a day we will all remember as another major milestone in the development process of the necessary infrastructure for the successful hosting of The occasion doubly strengthens our hopes for a better and up-to-date highway and a sustainable road network to facilitate movement and economic activities with in the Greater Banjul Area and the When completed, the project will vitally expand our urban road network to accommodate the increasing volume of road traffic, address the need for more effective road safety measures and set up an efficient drainage system within the Greater Banjul Area. It is obvious that t he construction of good roads, where they are needed most, can boost commerc ial engagements and improve the image of urban Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, th is Urban Roads Project has been wel l thought through . It has been designed to ease access to the densely populated communities of Kanifing and WCR. There are towns and settlements, big and small, that have been isolated for decades due to poor accessibility, yet the situation continue d to be ignored. Th ose isolated areas will be serv ed by th e proposed network of feeder roads that will link them Brufut, Ghanatown, Sukuta, Bundung, the Senegambia enclave and its neighbourhood , particularly stand to benefit from the pr oject. In addition, the project is intended to de-congest such major roads as the Bertil Harding Highway and the Westfield-Brikama and Westfield-Sukuta Roads. The development of these busy roads will solve the difficulties of schoolchildren, patients, business persons and the numerous commuters who stru ggle daily to board the few vehicles that ply these congested areas. Through such projects, a ccess to schools, hospitals and other social amenities and services will be enhanced gradually throughout the Ladies and gentlemen, the project we are l aunching today focuses on urban settlements where economic activities are concentrated and the population density is high. All those areas are marked by over-stretched social amenities . Aside from eas ing traffic flow , or facilitating transportation, the project will also contribute to poverty reduction , as outlined in the The scope of works for this project consists of the construction of twenty ( 20) routes that add up to fifty kilometres ( 50 km ), forty-five kilom etres ( 45 km) of asphalt pavement, and five kilometres (5 km) of concrete pavement . It also has provision for the installation of solar powered street lights and the construction of shoulders, sidewalks, drains and For putting this project together , I register the appreciation of the Gambian nation as a whole to the Saudi Fund for Development for providing the estimated funding requirement of fifty million US Dollars ($US 50 million ). We thank them In the same wa y, I congratulate the winning bidders for the consultancy, that is, PACE and GAMECS and the two contractors , namely: SSTP-CSE-Al Fahd Company JV for Lot 1 and Pavifort- Relatedly, I thank Hon ourable Bai Lamin Jobe, Minister of Transport, Works and Infrastructure and his team of experts of the Ministry and the National Roads Authority . They are the contract administrators and implementing agent. By the same token , I congratulate the OIC Gambia Secretariat on the achievements made so far in connection with this Urban Roads Project and other infrastructure items lined up in relation to the OIC Summit. I wish all the teams timely and successful execution of their contracts and duties. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, The ultimate success of this project depends immensely on the commitment of and collaboration among the parties ; that is, the contractors, the consultant, the work force and, to a larger extent, the beneficiaries. As such, I implore the communities and Councils to act as watchdogs for the successful Before proceeding to lay the foundation stone for the project, I must thank you all for your attendance and support. I pray that we live to come together again to