After suspension of works following launch in July 2015, heavy-duty engines have started roaring again in a clean-up exercise that continued on May 28, 2016.
Certain portions of the Mvog-Mbi and Mvog-Atangana-Mballa neighbourhoods in Yaounde were unrecognizable on May 28, 2016, with roadside fences destroyed and walls of several houses gaping open after a demolition exercise by the Yaounde City Council’s bulldozers since Monday May 23, 2016. Yellow trucks and bulldozers belonging to the executing enterprise, Arab Contractors Ltd, could be seen roaring up and down the scraped and widened road, indicating that the much-awaited rehabilitation works provided for under President Paul Biya’s Three-year Emergency Investment Plan, had been re-launched almost a year after the first engines had started and left the area.
“We had to wait for owners of roadside houses to be compensated and their structures demolished before starting work effectively. If the next four months go by without rainfall, we will complete and deliver the roads,” one of the supervising staff of Arab Contractors Ltd, Antoine Gabriel Essengue Essengue, explained to Cameroon Tribune. He said his men were pursuing the clean-up phase, clearing the debris left after the demolishing phase.
Meanwhile, workers in some of the affected roadside companies and residences could be seen recuperating materials from the debris of their destroyed gates or houses. Burst water pipes were appealing to nearby residents who crowded affected portions with their buckets to get free pipe-borne water. Traffic was heavily congested as the work area was sealed-off from cars going to the neighbourhood’s famous market. However, motorists were happy in their majority, hoping that works would this time around be completed and not abandoned as had been the case in 2015.
Launched in July 2015 with a 12-month deadline, the rehabilitation of the Mvog Mbi-Mvog Atangana Mballa road and its alleys, leading to the Regional Transport Office and towards Olezoa, were undertaken by Arab Contractors at a cost of FCFA 7.3 billion.
