By William Madouk Garang
The National Minister of Roads and Bridges, Simon Mijok Mijak has promised to reconstruct the half-finished Nyamlel bridge in the shortest time possible.
Speaking to the media during his inspection trip to Aweil, Mijak assured Aweil residents that they are dedicated to construct roads and bridges country wide.
“The National government is serious to construct roads and bridges across the Country,” partly reads the statement on Northern Bahr el Ghazal State governor’s Facebook page.
For his part, the governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, Tong Akeen Ngor assured the Minister that they are ready to provide existing local materials for roads construction which will ease movement and ferrying of commodities.
Nyamlel bridge is among the five bridges that were supposed to be built by AYAT company under the unity support by the former president of Sudan, Omar el Bashir. Four bridges were completed such as Akuem-Kou bridge, Kuom bridge Wathok bridge and Marial Baai bridges.
However, Nyamlel bridge remained half-constructed since inception of work in 2009 with walkway truss while the middle part stays unfurnished which poses threat to lives with about eleven people who died after they slipped off the bridge and fallen into the river.
In an exclusive interview with No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper, Sultan Mario Dhieu Malek one of the community leaders said if the bridge was constructed it would help in reducing prices of goods from Sudan.
“We are suffering tremendously due to uncompleted bridge that used to take people’s lives yearly,” Malek lamented.
“If the bridge is accessible, this would reduce prices of imported goods from Sudan due to short route to Aweil town,” he continued.
Sultan Malek stressed that in the interval of over thirteen years a lot of people lost their dear ones due to inaccessibility of the bridges.
“One person died last August, an old man fell off the bridge and got drown in the river. Hundreds of people that have injuries are un-counted,” he noted.
Nyamlel bridge connects Gok-Machar of Aweil North and east Darfur in neighboring Sudan.
Governor Ngor was accompanied by Simon Mijok Mijak, the Minister of Roads and Bridges to assess Crusher Site in Aweil Center County, Aroyo and preparations for work to start in Nyamlel Bridge by Rhino Star Construction Company are on form.
Among attendance also were; Madut Biar Yel, National Minister of Transport and their accompanying delegation to Aweil West County.
The completion of Nyamlel Bridge is funded by UNOPs and the State Government will provide local materials such as aggregates and Marram.