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Govt undertakes 109 road projects in Central Region

The government is undertaking 109 road infrastructural projects in the Central Region to improve transportation and also boost economic activities.

Out of the 109 road projects under construction, 28 are under the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), 55 under the Department of Feeder Roads and 26 under the Department of Urban Roads.

Additionally, a total of 89 roads have been identified with some already advertised and would soon be added to the existing 109 projects currently on-going.

Some of the projects currently being carried out  include; the Cape Coast inner city project, Cape Coast-Kakum road, Swedru town roads, Twifo Praso bridge, Assin Fosu town roads, Supredo bridge at Mfantseman Mankesim to Abeadze road, Bawjiase road Gomoa Dawurampong road among others.

The Minister of Roads, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, who said these, explained that, the various projects were being financed from the Government of Ghana loans and grants.

 He was speaking at a news conference at Cape Coast as part of his tour to the region to inspect some on-going road projects.

 The tour was also to solicit views on some of the challenges that some communities go through in moving from one destination to the other. 

Mr Amoako-Atta indicated that the Central Region’s road network was about 5,695 kilometres, and said, 1,156 were being handled by the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), while 3,150 and 1,390 were under the Department of Urban Roads and Feeder Roads respectively.

Giving a breakdown of the total number of roads in the region, he explained that, 1,880 representing 33 per cent was paved or had bitumen surface; 2,320 were at gravel stage and 1,795 representing 26 per cent were at the earth stage.

He further indicated that about 1,376 kilometres of road in the region, representing 24 per cent was considered as good, while 2,013 kilometres and 2,217 were fair and poor respectively.

Mr Amoako-Atta expressed the government’s commitment in improving the country’s infrastructure, and added that it was not out of place that the government declared this year as the “Year of Roads”.

He said after assuming office in 2017, the government under President Akufo-Addo realised the urgent need to improve the road network, saying, “Our road network in 2017 was very bad so the government put in place measures to improve the road infrastructure in the country”.

He explained that only 23 per cent of the country’s total road network of over 78,000 kilometres was bitumen surfaced (tarred), while the remaining 77 per cent was not tarred.

The government, he said was also focusing on the construction of interchanges and mentioned the Tamale, Pokuase and Obetsebi-Lamptey interchange, which he said were under construction.

From David O. Yarboi-Tetteh, Cape Coast

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