Africa-Press – South-Sudan. Subcontractors at the Juba-Torit-Nadapal highway have downed their tools after running out of fuel.
The engineers, our source says, have not been for nearly eight months. They have since run out of fuel and have no option but to pack their machines said Eng. Norman Charles Gideon, director-general.
Eng Charles is also the project’s supervisor.
The road link begins at the new freedom bridge in Juba, which connects the road to Nadapal, South Sudan’s border with Kenya. Eng. Charles remarked that the road work is good and that they have already made significant strides.
“This is properly done from Nesitu up to Torit which is a hundred kilometres and from Torit to Kapeota, we have done bush clearing in some parts. But the challenge we are facing now is the subcontractors are not able to continue with the work because they were not been paid for almost eight months,” he said,
“Work may resume next week if the arrears are settled. We hope that the project will be completed early next year.
“But so far, they (subcontractors) are not able to get fuel for the machinery. So they are just waiting for the payment” Charles stated.
Nedapal-Torit-Juba road is one of the national infrastructure projects being undertaken by the national government.
In February 2019 South Sudan’s government struck a deal with a Chinese company that would see the nation supply 10,000 barrels as a construction fee for the new project.
The deal was inked barely a year after President Salva Kiir’s visit to China in 2018 where he is said to have signed several bilateral agreements with Beijing.
The government intended to construct roads connecting Nadapal and Torit to Juba, as well as Rumbek and Wau.
Also, in April 2019, the government increased crude oil allocations to build roads and other development projects in the young nation from 10,000 to 30,000 barrels per day.
The subcontracted company on site is an independent company with a government contract.
Eng Charles says that they only received 30 per cent pay.
Nadapal is located in the South-West of South Sudan’s Kapoeta East County, near the Kenyan Rift Valley region.
The Nadapal belt is a 25-kilometer stretch of land running from South Sudan’s border to Kenya’s Lokichogio.
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