[August 30, 2011] Newly Trained Professionals for Road Construction in Oromia Tweet Aug 30, 2011 (Addis Fortune/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- A total of 1,876 construction professionals divided into 469 groups of four finished a training programme, which will enable them to receive road projects and a capital injection of 3.5 million Br by the Oromia Road Authority (ORA), on Tuesday, August 23, 2011. Each group comprised two civil engineers, a foreman and a surveyor whose requirement to join the training included four years of work experience in road construction and evidence that they had left their previous jobs. These groups were given a trade licence at the end of the six day training. They are to be awarded 15km to 20km gravel road projects with a width of between 4.5 metres to six metres in the region under the Universal Rural Road Access Project (URRAP), according to Umi Aba Jebel, ORA's deputy head of communication affairs. This is part of the GTP which aims to construct 71,522km of gravel roads by the end of 2014/15 linking kebele to kebele and kebele to the nearest main road. Out of this, 42,538km of gravel roads are planned to be constructed in Oromia at the end of the GTP year. Under this scheme, the regional state has planned to construct 9,338km of gravel roads with a projected cost of four billion Birr in 2011/12 using the newly trained groups. "Each group will receive one Tact Tractor which will work as a Loader and a Grader using interchangeable accessories affixed to it; two tractor trailers; and small items like shovels, diggers and other hand tools worth 3.5 million Br," Umi told Fortune. However, the groups will not take ownership of the materials for four years, according to her; instead they will lease them which will be paid by deducting 10pc of the total payment they receive for each project. "After four years, the ownership of the materials, which will be assembled by the Metal and Engineering Corporation (MetEC), will be transferred to the groups as they would have depreciated by then," Umi added. In a different approach to the normal procedure of presenting advance payment guarantee for a client from a certain bank or insurance, a joint bank account is to be created which requires the signature of both the contractors and ORA to withdraw cash. Supervising the road projects would be 350 consultant groups, which comprise of a civil engineer and two surveyors, which have already received training six months ago and are awaiting construction to begin. The consultant group will be given a pickup truck, surveying equipment made at nearby Technical and Educational Vocational Training (TVET) schools as well as Small and Micro Enterprises replacing the expensive surveying equipment known as total station, office materials and a desktop computer through similar arrangements as the contractors, according to Addisu Mosisa, who is one of the trainers as well as a former deputy head of ORA. "Both contractor and consultant groups were given the training which mainly focused on introduction of the URRAP and the targets of the GTP in the road sector," he told Fortune. "The theoretical aspect of the training included contract administration, designing, geotechnical assessment, socio-cultural interaction and cost administration." As many of the professionals only had experience in machine based construction, they were also trained in labour based road construction which will also include labour force from communities for free, he added. Both groups are waiting for the 245 weredas in the region to determine which kebeles are a priority for the interlinking gravel road projects, according to one of the trainees who wished to remain anonymous. However, these groups will only be awarded road projects without competition for the next two years. "After two years, the groups will only be awarded road projects through tenders floated," Umi told Fortune. "Those who do not pass the performance evaluation at that time will be replaced by new trainees." [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]