Pavifort Gives False Impression ….No Traffic Light at Ferry Junction
Pavifort Construction company which is contracted under the Urban Mobility Project(IRUMP) to improve major roads corridor across the country gearing towards comprehensive road corridor improvement that will cover complete traffic management measures including intersection improvements, coordinated traffic lights and improvement of sidewalks for pedestrians and drainages.
The Project is under the $11 Million Dollars World Bank IRUMP Project that earmarked three selected areas namely: Ferry Junction in the East End of Freetown, Congo Cross Roundabout and Lumley in the West End of Freetown.
As learnt, the road signs and furniture is expected to be completed by the end of July,2023, but that aspect is yet to be done by the company.
Recently, claimed was made by the Company that they had installed traffic lights at Ferry Junction, Congo Cross Roundabout and Lumley axis, marking the final phase of that aspect of the Urban Mobility Project(IRUMP) as was agreed upon.
In a bid to crosscheck the veracity of this claims, this medium conducted inspection visit in the aforementioned areas to ascertain whether the company is giving false impression to the public or not.
During our inspection visit, we understood that the company has completed the installation of the traffic lights at Lumley axis, Congo Cross, but is yet to do same at ferry Junction as claimed by the company. In all of our inspection visits, nothing like traffic light was visibly seen at Ferry Junction.
To enquire as to what had gone wrong that led to the delay, the Medium contacted the CEO of Pavifort, Alimu Barrie, via Whatsapp text messages, but he declined to comment on the issues.
During the signing of that contract between Pavifort Al-yanlar and the Ministry of Transport and Aviation on Thursday 23rd July,2020, the Former Minister of Transport, Kabineh Kallon, thanked the company for winning the contract and called on them to complete the work within the stipulated timeframe. The Minister said the winning of the contract by a local company is a demonstration of the emphasis President Bio Government placed on Local content policy and called on the company not to betray the trust of the President.
The Chairman/CEO of Pavifort Al-Ayandar Holdings JV, Alimu Barrie, thanked the Minister and his team for putting their trust in a locally based company like them and assured that the company will exceed expectation in implementing the project so as to make the Ministry proud and not betray their confidence and trust reposed on them.
He concluded by assuring that the contract will be completed within the record time.
