Part of the road connecting roack city and Gudele Buoba road that has been cleared on 10th Jan. 2024 - Credit: Lou Nelson/Eye Radio

In coordination with Central Equatoria state authorities, the national government has launched a 35-kilometer road upgrading project for the capital Juba worth $35 million.

The launch of the Juba urban roads will include Freedom Bridge Road, Gudele-Rock City, Hai Tarawa, Hai Mauna, Suk Maleshia, Miya Saba, and Hai Referendum roads.

Others include the riverside to Konyo-konyo, Kator Church to the bridge, Juba-Bor highway to the Ministry of Wildlife, and Nimule highway to the Ministry of Wildlife.

The road project is expected to be completed in one year.

According to the National Ministry of Roads and Bridges, the government has contracted Africa Resource Corporation, or ARC for the project.

Simon Mijok Mijak is the national minister of roads and bridges.

He said the project is being implemented after the directive of President Salva Kiir.

Simon spoke at the launch of the Juba urban roads upgrading project along the Gudele-Rock City road in Juba this morning.

“The success we have today is a part of the directive of H.H. the President that he must see a solution for urban roads, and I thank him for that because if it was not his directive, we wouldn’t be in this place,” Minister Mijok said.

“If Central Equatoria came alone, or the mayor, without the national government, the implementation would not be like this today. So coming together like a government, nothing will be impossible, because we represent the people, we are not representing ourselves.

“Facilitation of movement, we are happy for it, the congestion of Lou (Boaba) or other places will not be there anymore, it will be in the past.”

On his part, the governor of Central Equatoria state said the state government will ensure security is provided during the implementation of the project.

Emmanuel Adil Anthony also assured that once completed the state government will maintain the cleanness of the roads.

“We are seriously supporting this project until it is completed without any problem, providing security and some construction materials. Mr. Minister as a state, we will also cooperate with you to make sure these internal roads that are being worked on are kept clean,” said Governor Adil.

Engineer Kur John is the project manager of ARC.

He said the company has already contracted 12 companies for the speedy implementation of the roads.

Kur added that a one-kilometre asphalt road will cost roughly one million dollars.

“ARC is ready to implement the government directives, we have deployed our sub-contractors, and we are here to implement the directives of our government and our citizens,” said Kur.

“This work has already started with the launching of today and the mobilization that has been done which you are seeing now shows that the work has already started.

“In this project, we have about 12 sub-contractors, and we have deployed them on different roads, nationals, and some foreigners. Normally for an ideal asphalt work, it always costs about a million dollars per kilometer up to the asphalt level.”