CNSC launches construction of third trucker accommodation centre

The Minister of Transport, Mr. Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe, on 19 March 2021 presided over the Ngoulentang Trucker Accommodation foundation stone-laying ceremony in Ngoulentang, Nyong and Mfoumou, Division of the Centre Region. The ceremony was attended by the Minister Delegate at the Presidency of the Republic in charge of Defence, Mr. Joseph Beti Assomo who doubles as Board Chair of the Cameroon National Shippers’ Council (CNSC), project owner.

In his official opening address, the Minister of Transport lauded CNSC's initiative which will help solve security and accommodation problems encountered by transporters of transit goods "transporters are often obliged to sleep in their trucks parked along the road without any security for their goods,” he stressed. Ideally located on the Douala-Bangui, Douala-Ndjamena road corridors, the Centre will help in reducing road accidents and the haphazard roadside parking of trucks along the corridors.

According to Mr. Auguste Mbappe Penda, CNSC General Manager, the Centre will help create jobs and a foodstuff market in the locality as well as strengthen cohesion between the surrounding populations and truckers transporting transit goods. The project forms part of CNSC's vast programme aimed at promoting trans-Cameroon corridors and facilitating the safe movement of transit goods.

The Centre will cover 14 hectares. But for a start, only 2.5 hectares will be used for the construction of a parking lot for 160 trucks, a 10-room guesthouse, a refectory that can seat 50 persons, a prayer ground, a portable water borehole and a solar electrification system. The project is being executed by the Military Engineering Department.

 (Source: Excerpt from Cameroon Tribune No.12310 of 22 March 2021)