The Governor of Central Equatoria State, Emmanuel Adil Anthony, announced on Tuesday the commencement of the construction for the Custom-Rock City-Gudele One Road.
The project aims to improve access to services for the residents between Custom, Rock City, Gudele One, and Munuki.
Governor Adil emphasized the significance of this road in enhancing the ease of movement and accessibility of services for the residents. He stated, “The road is very important in terms of improving access to services for the residents between Custom to Rock City, Gudele One, and Munuki.”
However, Adil expressed concern about some residents encroaching on the road, and he urged them to remove their structures voluntarily before the government takes action.
He warned, “Those who have built near the roads, you have already seen one of the roads we have just inspected. Most of the people have built beyond the designated pieces of land for either plot or business purposes. I want to kindly appeal to you that if you have put a house or whatever structure near the road or in a road reserve, kindly remove these structures because, as a government, we will definitely remove it. And it will be a very serious cost for you. It will have implications on you having to even pay some fines.”
Adil also called upon residents of Juba City to seek assistance from the City authorities before constructing houses to prevent encroachments on roads and road reserves.
“If you want to construct a house, kindly seek the authorities, either the block director or the city council authorities. You can even approach the state Ministry of Lands and Housing. I have seen parts of the roads have been squeezed and encroached into. Actually, most roads we have inspected have been encroached into,” he revealed.
Emmanuel Khamis, Acting Mayor of Juba City Council, assured that the city council has already begun work on the road using their equipment, and he expressed hope that with the support of the state government, they will be able to rehabilitate all internal roads in the city.
Khamis acknowledged the challenges they are facing during the road construction and called on Dar Petroleum to extend their corporate social responsibility to support the Juba City Council.
He elaborated, “There are a few challenges. There is a bridge that needs to be built properly so that water cannot wash this road away. We need to put grade one murram here so that the road will last long. We also want to appeal to the leadership to appeal to the Dar Petroleum Company to provide us with their corporate support so that this road can be well built and even tarmac.”