A global technology company, Knights Ghana Limited, has built 30 composite modular steel bridges, to be handed over to the government.
This is to improve the social and economic activities in some communities across the country.
The building of 50 bridges is part of a €50-million project, being executed by Knights Ghana Limited, a subsidiary company of Knights a.s of the Czech Republic, under an agreement between the governments of Ghana and the Czech Republic.
The Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Knights a.s of the Czech Republic, Dr Karl Laryea, said 22 bridges are going through testing and that some old bridges were replaced while others were newly built.
He said they include bridges over Okurudu stream at Kpormottey, Central Region, the Okwenya Bridge over the Okwe River (Somanya-Akuse Junction Road) and the Akim Mampong – Adasawase Bridge over the BirimRiver both in the Eastern Region.
The rest are Ochi River Bridge over the Breman – Asikuma road in the Central Region, the North Ofankor-Taifa Burkina Bridge in the Greater Accra and the Susanso-AnglogaBridge in the Ashanti Region.
Dr Laryea explained that the construction of the bridges were to have been completed by May 31, this year, but it was delayed “due to the COVID-19 pandemic and delay by the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Ghana Water Company to relocate the services lines.”
He said that heavy rainfall in the Western part of the country, as well as the Northern part of Ghana after spillage of the Bagre Dam, affected the building of bridges.
Dr Laryea said 200 bridges would be constructed at a cost of €200 million following the signing of the agreement in 2007.
He indicated that due to financial constraints, the contract would be executed in four phases (tranches), adding that in April, 2019, an agreement for the first tranche of 50 was signed.
Dr Laryea also said a Czech Republic bank, CeskoslovenskaObchodnibanka, a.s. (CSOB), signed a loan agreement with Ghana’s Ministry of Finance.
“This agreement came into force on June 1, 2020, and we are expected to complete it by the end of 2022. Out of the ongoing 50 bridges, we are supposed to fully inaugurate 25 of them by the end of March, 2022, while the remaining 25 will be handed over to the government by the end of this year,” he said.
By Times Reporter
