The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako Atta, has inaugurated the rehabilitated 7km-Tema Community 3 beach road, with a call on city authorities to prevent the erection of structures along the stretch.
The GH¢45 million project was financed by the Meridian Ports Services (MPS) Limited, as part of its corporate social responsibility to reduce congestion on the road during peak hours.
The road project involved the construction of a new roundabout and four slip roads within each quadrant of the roundabout and upgrade of access roads from the north, east and west with pavement blocks.
Mr Atta praised MPS for funding the project, and other projects, including the Tema Motorway Roundabout improvement in 2017, which served as a stepping stone for the ongoing three-tier construction on the Accra-Tema motorway.
He noted that the improvement works by MPS also represented the first phase of the government of Ghana’s Tema arterial road project, to improve the road network in the Tema Metropolis, due to the important role of the port of Tema.
He said government had plans to upgrade the beach road through Nungua to the Black Star Square in Accra to ease vehicular movement on the corridor.
Mr Atta said that work would soon begin on the six lane Accra-Tema motorway to link the Accra-Nsawam road and asked road users, especially drivers to observe traffic rules.
The Deputy Minister for Transport, Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, commended MPS for the initiative, and urged other corporate bodies in the metropolis to emulate their example, and advised the company to maintain the road so that it would last longer.
The Chief Executive Officer of MPS, Mohammed Samara, said the road was a significant link between the new port and the hinterlands.
He said the company would soon begin work on an eight-lane express way project to upgrade the road network in the Tema metropolis.
Mr Samara said the completion of the Tema port expansion project would make the facility one of the biggest in Africa, and it would serve as a trans-shipment hub to ports in the continent and other parts of the world.
FROM GODFRED BLAY GIBBAH, TEMA
