The Africa Resource Corporation (ARC) construction company Wednesday launched the construction of the Greater Bahr el Ghazal road network in Rumbek of South Sudan’s Lakes State.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday, ARC project manager for the construction Garang Yel Chan said, “I am here today (Wednesday) in Rumbek. We visited the site and this is the start of our M1 highway from Rumbek, Tonj, Kuajok, Gogrial, Wunrock all the way to Majok-noon.”
“We came today to meet with the state minister and commissioner of the area and meet with chiefs to inform them as a community that we have started the work. We have done and completed the mobilization and we deployed all our technical teams of experts on the ground and the work is about to kick off,” he added.
He said they will rely on locally available materials such as the murram needed for the construction and appealed to the locals to participate in the construction.
Yel assured the residents whose houses and property fall within the main road will be compensated adding that registration is ongoing.
“I am urging our people to support their projects by being peaceful towards the project and this is what the leadership of his excellency the President of South Sudan wants, the construction of Bahr El Ghazal highway to start as soon as possible,” he said. “We have deployed all the necessary machinery to begin this construction and we are urging our people to stand with us so that we can move in together with the state authorities and everyone to play a role for peaceful construction of the highway.”
The ARC official promised that they will deliver as per their terms of reference and ensure that region is connected by road.
Lakes State minister of roads and bridges Benjamin Awuol Malual said the construction work would begin on Thursday from Rumbek Roundabout to Wau, in Western Bahr el Ghazal State.
“As a government, we want to urge the community and people at the roadside, people residing at the roadside to be peaceful to our workers who are working on the road,” he said. “There are trees that need to be destroyed and these are blessed trees for traditional rituals and sacrifices. These trees need to be destroyed and if they need compensation, the ARC company can compensate them.”
He added, “The only thing we can do as a state government is the supervision of the work because we don’t have anything. We only want to talk with the community about the work that is going on. We also need to urge the community to be cautious while using the road as construction work begins.”
The commissioner of Rumbek Central County, Kaman Matur Ajac stressed that residents should welcome the development, saying they will form a committee comprising chiefs and ARC members to spearhead the compensation of property destroyed during the construction process.