Ghanatodayonline.com News, Politics, Health, Education & More
No government in the 4th Republic’s history, according to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has built more roads than his administration.
President Akufo-Addo said that the Upper West Region alone has 18 road projects finished since 2017 and 110 more ongoing in an interview with Radio Upper West on August 22, 2022, at the beginning of a two-day working visit to the region.
The President announced the Han-Tumu section of the Wa-Tumu Road has been re-scoped and awarded to 5 different contractors, namely P W Ghanem Ltd, Maripoma Ltd, Mawums Construction, Ashcal Ltd, and Greenhouse Company Ltd, and will be finished in 24 months while serving notice of the re-packaging and award of the contract for the construction of the Wa-Tumu Road.
He reiterated that the Wa-Hamile Road has been tarred for the first time in the history of the country.
The President claims that these initiatives provide solid evidence that the tagline “Year of Roads” was more than just a catchphrase.
It has been a reality and a hugely popular program.
“The road infrastructure that has been developed since I became President, let me use this renowned word, is unprecedented,” claims President Akufo-Addo.
The road sector has never seen anything like this. Let’s frame it in terms of the Fourth Republic.
Since independence, wants to say the Minister of Roads.
“I just want to be a bit more modest and compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges,” he concluded. And I’m arguing that the NPP government of Akufo-Addo has built the best road infrastructure in the Fourth Republic.
He said, “The administration has greatly increased the road network.
Naturally, when you start at zero, reaching four may not seem like a lot of progress, but getting from zero to four is a significant step, and when you reach five, six, or seven, you realize that you’re starting to succeed.
“In the face of apparent financial difficulties confronting the nation, the President noted that “it’s been a difficult time, but as I said, we are very conscious of the difficulties in the management of the economy, and it affects areas like arrears of payments to contractors, but we are making a big effort to try and resolve these problems.”
President Akufo-Addo assured that “contractors are not going to be left high and dry. At the end of the day, if they don’t get paid, the development of our road infrastructure stalls. Things are going to work out, they are definitely going to work out”.
Whilst in Wa, President Akufo-Addo paid a courtesy call on the Overlord of the Wa Traditional Area, Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV, and also inspected ongoing work on the Youth Resource Centre, which is nearly completed.
The Ministry of Roads and Highways has signed an MOU with M/S Zhougmei Engineering Ltd to undertake the dualization of the Wa Main Road from (S.D. Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies) to the Wa Airport. The MoU also involves the rehabilitation of 130km of selected roads in the Upper West region.
The Ghana Highway Authority has completed 8 projects totalling 107km in the Upper West Region. Some of the projects are the surfacing of Kaleo-Sankana-Takpo (12.5km); construction of Wa-Han (10km) and the Upgrading of Nadwoli-Lawra-Hamile (42.6km)
Under Danida Funding, two (2) major bridges at Kulun (over River Kulpawn) and Amabarala (over River Ambarala) have been completed therefore easing mobility along the Bulenga-Yaala-Kundugu route. These have improved travel time along the road corridor. Communities that were cut off during the rainy season now have all-weather roads.
There are currently 22 trunk road projects ongoing in the region covering 503km of the network at various stages of completion
Some of these include the 57km Wa-Walewale Road, the 22km Wa -Han Road, and the construction of a steel bridge over River Gongonwu on the Wa-Walewale Road
Approval has been granted to launch a Mabey Bridge at Kamba (Lawra District) on the Lawra-Nandom Road to replace a damaged bridge at the location. Additionally, a new bridge will be constructed at Domwene on the Jirapa -Hamile Road (N12)
The Department of Feeder Roads has completed 8 projects totalling 45.7km on the network mainly in the form of rehabilitation and spot improvement. The Department is currently implementing 64 projects covering 1,409km of feeder Roads
The region is also benefiting from the 670km World Bank-funded rehabilitation and maintenance of farm roads using Output and Performance Based Contract (OPRC) method.
Under this system the Contractor is responsible for the design of the roads, and he also undertakes the construction and maintains the roads beyond two years.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
