While some stretches are still in full works, others now have tar with visible fruits already.

Inhabitants of localities between Garoua-Boulai in the East and Meiganga in the Adamawa Regions will soon bid farewell to the hitherto nightmare of commuting from one end to the other and seeing their produce rot away in farms while customers languished in scarcity in other areas. This follows the ongoing pavement of the Garoua-Boulai-Meiganga stretch, part of the 253-km Garoua-Boulai-Ngaoundere road project.

From Garoua-Boulai, a junction town between the East and Adamawa Regions and the neighbouring Central African Republic where tar initially ended, serious tarring work is ongoing. Heavy-duty machines of the contracting firm, Razel, are currently working on the stretch, bulldozing in some parts, throwing gravel on others and putting tar on some others. From observation, bulldozing is almost ended with bridges now receiving particular attention so that when the road is finally paved, it would be able to contain the heavy traffic - especially of cargo trucks plying the Douala-Ngaoundere-N’Djamena corridor.

Plying the road on Saturday, November 24, 2012, this reporter observed that although workers on the road had an off day, work on bridges was however not perturbed as iron rod benders could be seen bending and tying rods from one end to the other, awaiting concreting by engineers. Among the many bridges under construction is the one on River Lom which leaves no passer-by indifferent. From the old, narrow bridge that could only engender fear, users will in no distant future drive across a wide and solid bridge being erected so many metres from the former site. One characteristic feature on the road is the number of deviations, especially where bridges are being constructed.

Already Visible Fruits

Be it Garoua-Boulai or Meiganga, the people are mostly agro-pastoral farmers with livestock, cassava, sweet potato, yam, cocoyam production et al, topping the chart. With the already paved stretch, inhabitants are already displaying their farm products along the road which now serves as a ready market for commuters. It is commonplace to see heaps of these items lined up by the road in wait for customers plying the road.

According to the First Deputy Mayor of Meiganga Council, Doka Daniel, the life-changing project will also spur farmers who might have been discouraged by the hitherto poor state of the road, to redouble efforts and produce more. “We now have a ready market for our produce and hope that when the project is complete, we will better negotiate the prices of our farm produce and therefore reap the fruit of our labour,” he said.