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The Ministry of Roads and Highways has been urged by the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry to release a minimum of GH¢2 billion to compensate road contractors for completed projects.
It was agreed that setting aside GH¢150 million to hire and pay road contractors to fix potholes across the country is a good start. The Chamber did point out that this sum is far less than the GH¢15 billion that it owes its members.
In an interview with Daily Graphic, the Chamber’s CEO, Emmanuel Cheery, claimed that the government’s GH¢150 million allotment was woefully insufficient to solve the pothole situation in Accra, let alone the entire nation.
“In as much as we commend the government for releasing such an amount, we are pleading that the money should be increased in view of the nature of the work,” Mr Cheery said.
He continued by saying that the money was not enough to complete the job, especially since some of the potholes had become gullies and manholes as a result of months of disuse.
“They are manholes and some of them are gullies.
“If they were to be these normal potholes that we see, they could be treated differently, but the current ones have been left unattended to for so long and so they have deteriorated into manholes and gullies,” Mr Cheery stated.
His remarks follow the announcement by the Ministry of Roads and Highways that approximately GH¢150 million will be allocated for the nationwide repair of potholes.
The Ministry announced in a press release that the Department of Urban Roads would start regular pothole patching on major roads during the dry season.
Through this exercise, the Ministry hopes to lower the risk of accidents and increase the longevity of our road infrastructure.
Based on this, Mr. Cherry expressed hope that the minister-designate for Roads and Highways would release more funding for road construction by taking the public’s and industry stakeholders’ concerns into consideration.
Additionally, he asked the government to try to pay off its nearly GH¢15 billion debt to contractors.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
