Kiir to inaugurate section of Juba-Bahr el Ghazal highway on Independence Day – VP Taban

JUBA – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit will inaugurate the first completed section of the Juba-Bahr el Ghazal Highway during South Sudan’s celebration of its 10^th independence anniversary on July 9^th 2021, according to vice-president for infrastructure cluster Taban Deng Gai.

South Sudan government in March 2019 signed an agreement with Shandong Hi-Speed for construction and upgrading of major national and interstate highways beginning with the Juba-Bahr el Ghazal Highway and the agreement provides for the funding and building of the infrastructure.

The agreement between the government and the Chinese firm was reportedly reached in August the previous year to construct several roads linking the capital to all the ten states in return for at least 10 barrels per day.

That amount of oil was later on updated to become 30 barrels of crude oil per day.

Speaking following a visit to the construction site of the road on Wednesday, Vice-President Taban said construction of the first section of the Juba-Terekeka road will be completed before South Sudan celebrates its 10^th independence anniversary next month.

President Kiir, Taban said, will then visit the site on Independence Day (9^th July 2021) for what will be the country’s first inauguration of a major road since independence in July 2011.

“This section of Juba-Terekeka will finish so that we move to the section of Terekeka-Yirol and also we move to the section of Yirol and Rumbek,” Taban told reporters during media comments he made at the site.

“On 9^th July, during the Independence Day, the President will do the first opening the first section of that road because this is a very important road and I have been telling the public that this road is linking two-third of the population of the Republic of South Sudan,” the senior government official said.