By Ilyasa Baa
The Projects Engineer, Office of the Presidential Infrastructure Initiative, Abdul Njai, has said the Lungi Bridge project will create five thousand jobs (5000) per year, noting that it will last for a period of six years.
Engineer Njai, who represented the government, made this disclosure at the INFRACON 2019 Symposium, organized by Track Your Build, an engineering company, past Friday at the Radison Blu Hotel in Freetown.
Engineering students, representatives from successful engineering firms and members of the Sierra Leone Institute of Engineering were in attendance at the symposium.
The government representative told the gathering that 98% of the engineers, currently working on Phase I of the Lungi Bridge project, are local engineers. Only two foreign experts have been brought in to build the much trumpeted bridge that will connect the city to the Lungi International Airport. It is believed it will enable vehicles to take people to and from the only Airport in the country.
The Managing Director, Track Your Build – Africa, Ing. Edmond B. Nonie, said that the Lungi bridge project will be finished within the stipulated time. That is, if funds are made available for working on the project. He said, for example, bridges in China, like ours in Sierra Leone, can be built in three years.
He explained that the INFRACON 2019 Symposium was an exhibition with pitched competition and series of panellists, drawn from the field of engineering, to explain about the infrastructure and construction of Sierra Leone, which will include the construction of roads, water, power and the telecommunications infrastructure of the country.
Ing. Edmond B. Nonie said his company has been in operation since 2016, providing surveying, mapping and monitoring service nationally and internationally. The company, according to the founder, has worked for the Government of Sierra Leone and international agencies.
In his presentation, Andrew Keili (ing), who doubles as the Presidential running mate of the opposition National Grand Coalition (NGC) Party, said inter-agency cooperation is lacking in the governance structure of the New Direction administration. He blasted that the government as not being serious about regulating the engineering sector, which, he said, needs urgent intervention in terms of proper policy formulation. He mentioned that the banks’ demand for gigantic collaterals affects investment in infrastructure.
Civil Society activist, Charles Mambu, dilated on the need for engineering graduates to go to the field and equip themselves with the practical aspect of the job.
Delivering her keynote address, Trudy Morgan encouraged women to study engineering to help build the country, which, she noted, is in dire need of infrastructural development. She described women engineers as more accepted than their male counterparts.
She expressed satisfaction over the strides the Sierra Leone Institute of Engineering have been making towards boosting the sector. She called on the government to boost the sector by making policies that augment infrastructural growth in the country.