Public Works minister inspects construction of bridge linking Cameroon-Nigeria.

The member of government will also inspect the construction of a bridge overthe Logone River, between Yagoua in Cameroon and Bongor in Chad.

This is the crux of a weeklong working visit undertaken by the Minister and his entourage to the Far North Region. The visit which began Sunday ends Thursday, according to a detailed programme sent to our newsroom.

On Monday, the minister accompanied by his closed collaborators visited the newly constructed 124-meter bridge at Mayo Limani in the Far North Region. The bridge links Cameron and neighboring Nigeria. The contract was awarded to COMAR Sarl.

According to the head of the control mission, Azah Yannick Blaise, the project has been realised in record time.

“We have finished our work in time. We didn’t go above the deadline given to us. It wasn’t easy for us but we tried our best to finish in time. We have done a good job as you can see for yourself. You can see the quality of work. The bridge has been opened to road users. Trucks will pass here without any problem,” he said.

Azah also boasted that the bridge will last for a very long time due to the durable material used in building the facility.

For his part, Public Works minister, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi has expressed satisfaction with the quality of work done on the site.

He has however given firm instructions to customs officers operating around the facility to be vigilant especially on the movement of heavy-loaded trucks on the bridge.

He has instructed that no heavy-loaded truck be allowed to cross the bridge in an overloaded state. He has prescribed that overloaded trucks should be offloaded before crossing the bridge.

It should be said that Minister Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi’s working visit to the Far North Region aims to assess the progress of ongoing or planned road projects as well as make a mid-term evaluation of the results of the study on the adaptation and resilience of infrastructure to climate change in the Far North Region.

It also seeks to assess an updated study on the Mora-Dabanga-Kousseri road reconstruction.
The 61.43-km-long Maroua-Mora Road, constructed thanks to joint financing by the State of Cameroon and the World Bank to the tune of 39,356,816,290 FCFA (including
taxes), will be officially commissioned as part of the visit. 

The ongoing works on the Mora-Waza, Mora-Tchakamary and Sale-Dabanga sections; theconstruction of a 124-metre-long bridge over the Mayo Limani and its access roads, between
Amchidé and Limani, on the Cameroon-Nigeria border, and the construction of the bridge over the Logone River, between Yagoua and Bongor in Chad will be assessed.

The visit will serve as an opportunity for the amendment of the preliminary report of the study on the adaptation and resilience of infrastructure to climate change in the Far North Region, conducted by the Ministry of Public Works. 

In this regard, a meeting involving several stakeholders will help review the first conclusions of the proposals made to sustainably solve the existing problems related to floods and infrastructure sustainability, on the one hand, and to obtain the scientific appraisal and contribution of the University of Maroua on the other.

The Maroua-Mora Road has made it possible for the local population to benefit fromseveral related infrastructure: 68 classrooms, 21 desks for headmasters, 1,200 linear metres of
school fences, 42 latrines, 25 water boreholes, 3,000 school benches and 89 teachers’ desks.

With regard to the construction of the Logone Bridge in particular, which was carried out withthe support of the African Development Bank, the African Development Fund and the European Union, it is the major component of the Lake Chad Basin Road Network Integration Project, which aims at promoting trade between Cameroon and Chad, reducing transport time and costs, and improving access to basic services for the populations in the project’s area of influence.

“All the efforts made by the Government in the Far North, under the impetus of thePresident…Paul Biya, will be reinforced with the execution and completion of other road infrastructure projects, including the construction of the Bogo-Pouss Road, the implementation of the Connectivity, Resilience and Inclusion Improvement Project (PACRI) on the Mora Dabanga-Kousseri road corridor, and the rehabilitation of the Magada-Yagoua and Moutourwa-Maroua sections” said a statement from the Ministry of Public Works.