By Husainatou M Jallow
The Honourable Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Professor Pierre Gomez, senior staff of his ministry, and senior government officials last week received the President of the Republic, His Excellency Adama Barrow, in audience at the construction site of Lot 2 of the Fixed Package of the University of the Gambia (UTG) Development Project, at Faraba Banta Campus.
This visit was part of President Barrow’s visit to project sites to gather first-hand information on the level of progress and challenges.
During his visit, the Honourable Minister of Higher Education, Professor Pierre Gomez, the Contractor and the Vice Chancellor of UTG, took President Barrow on a tour of the project site, which included the chancery, School of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Faculty of Law, and the convocation ground.
Speaking at the project site, His Excellency Adama Barrow stated that despite his busy schedule, he is concerned about the status of his projects; thus he would always create time out of his busy schedule to inspect the ongoing projects. He lamented that the project was way behind schedule because the targeted period for the completion of the project was for this year’s independence celebration.
He disclosed that he has discussed with the contractor and consultant that they would submit a realistic revised work plan on Friday, 17 January 2025, to further discuss technical issues to ensure a realistic completion of this project.
He expressed delight at the level of development at the Faculty of Law facility. With this building [Faculty of Law], I believe we are up to 90% of the infrastructure work; it is just the Chancery that is delayed now. There are some difficulties, but we are one hundred percent sure that we will deliver the project before the end of this year,” he remarked.
The President noted that there are not many issues; that the company can do more than what they are doing. He asked them to make sure that they complete the Phase 2 on time.
Minister Gomez informed President Barrow that for the first time in the history of The Gambia, the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences will have a school facility with standard and well-equipped laboratories. The Faculty of Law will also for the first time have a standard Moot court.
The representative of PACE Consultant, Imed Gharbi; and the representative of Shapoorji Pallonji Contractor, Mr. Ganapati Idoorkor highlighted some of the challenges they faced and announced that the project is expected to be completed by September 2025.
