Khabar Khair (Only Good News) – Fatima Rashad

     The paving and road repair projects implemented in many Yemeni governorates have restored lifeline to the cities and regions targeted by the road rehabilitation project. Yemenis hope to rehabilitate the roads linking the governorates, including the international road linking Yemen with Saudi Arabia and Oman. The Saudi Reconstruction Program and the Social Fund for Development working in Yemen are financing the rehabilitation of a number of roads that were destroyed during the conflict; They finance road repair and paving projects.

   Vehicles and car drivers are demanding repairing the Sanaa-Aden Road, which passes through five governorates, and is the most damaged and congested road.

   Muhammad Sahel (a driver of a transport vehicle between Aden and Sana’a) says: “We need to urgently restore roads, as the ongoing conflict in Yemen has affected us, and the destruction of some of the main roads that we used to travel through, but today we are facing bad and unpaved feeder roads that do not facilitate the hardship of travel.”.

   Sahel added, “The travel time from Sanaa to Aden has doubled from seven hours to 14 hours via the rapid transit car, which adds significant costs to all goods transported between these governorates.”

    Wafaa Ali, one of the women affected by the hardship of a long journey; Because she travels every three months, moving between Aden and Sana’a due to personal circumstances that make her bear the suffering of traveling between roads that lack safety, Wafaa says: “I used to arrive in a few short hours to my destination, but due to the conditions of the country in which we live, our suffering increased in travel because of the destruction that the roads and bridges were exposed to. that connects one region to another.

     According to the Ministry of Public Works and Roads, the total urban paving projects in Aden governorate amounted to (88) projects, in Abyan (13) projects, in addition to six paving projects, and in Al Dhale’e (13) and (8) urban projects, and in Lahj the number of urban projects reached (16) projects.

    Ahlam Ahmed (an engineer at the Ministry of Works) said: “The ministry is working on paving the streets of neighborhoods, and is implementing projects for the governorates of Abyan, Lahj, Aden and Al Dhale’.”

    Ahlam added, “The number of workers in urban paving projects in Aden has reached reached (10,095) worker , while in Abyan (1,245) worker , in Al-Dhale’, the number reached (1,202) worker, and in Lahj (1,092) workers.”

    She pointed out that the number of beneficiaries of urban projects in the governorates of Aden, Abyan, Al-Dhalea and Lahj is (631،518).

     On  his part, Moad Al-Shabati – Office of the Roads Maintenance Fund – Aden said: “We have faced difficulties lately, most notably the account being suspended several times, which led to the suspension of work on projects due to the delay in disbursing contractors’ dues, the high exchange rate against the deteriorating Yemeni currency, in addition to the high prices of Oil derivatives, and we were unable to open new projects due to the current conditions of the Fund, with a plan for the year 2021 AD, but still  we were unable to implement new roads.”

    Muad continues to “ Khabar Khair (Only Good News)”: “The projects carried out by the fund and supervised by the emergency maintenance project, the rehabilitation of the sea route, the maintenance and rehabilitation of the ‘Rigel tour’, and maintenance projects for international lines. All these projects and rehabilitation were supported by the Ministry of Public Works and Roads and the Roads and Bridges Maintenance Fund. “.

     He added: “The number of roads implemented by the Fund in Lahj, Aden, Abyan, Shabwa, Al Dhale’, Taiz and Hadramout amounted to (48) projects, and the total total value of contracts and their attachments (9,602,513,477) and executed works valued (3,925, 065, 855) .

    Moaz said: “One of the most prominent projects that were implemented in the long travel lines linking the governorates was the (Hayjat Al-Abed) project, which was completed to facilitate the hardship of travel for travelers. However, these reforms take place through stages and the fund stage ended after it had completed part of it, to be received by another supporter. and maintains it.”

     Moaz confirmed that there is a vision for future projects for the governorates within the 2021 plan, with a total length of (2,368.5) and an estimated cost of (43,118,316,772) Yemeni riyals.

      It is expected that the government, along with the Saudi Program for the Reconstruction of Yemen, will provide the necessary funds for the Ministry of Works to continue the repairs and rebuild what was destroyed. There are roads that need to be repaired, especially the long travel roads that travelers complain about and linking governorates, as well as the crossings of neighboring countries to Yemen.

    It is noteworthy that the Public Works Project has paved 161 kilometers of rural and urban roads funded by the World Bank Finance Corporation in partnership with the United Nations Development Program. According to the bulletin of the Saudi Reconstruction Program website, it has implemented projects to open roads between the districts of Al-Mahra Governorate, with a total of 600 km. and rehabilitate Parts of the Qataba Al-Dhalea road, with a total length of 84 km.