The Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has broken the ground for work to begin on the Tamale -Yendi, Yendi -Zabzugu and Tatale Roads.
The Tatale -Tamale road is estimated at a cost of 150 million dollars with funding from the World Bank facility.
The project was approved in June 2017 under the Transport Sector Improvement Project (TSIP). The project, however, became effective on August 31, 2018.
The construction of the road is expected to complete in two years but under the terms of the contract, the contractor would be undertaking maintenance works for five years on the roads.
The roads when completed would also form part of the Easter Corridor roads which links Tema, Asikuma, Hohoe, Bimbilla, Yendi, Gusheigu, Gbintiri, Bunkprugu, Garu, Bawku and Polimakom.
At a ceremony to cut the sod for work to begin here yesterday, the Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said this showed the evidence of the government’s year of roads.
He said this was significant to promote the government’s drive to ensure inclusive and balanced development in Northern Ghana.
The Vice President added that 167km highway between Tatale and Tamale, was in additional 670km and 240km of feeder roads to be rehabilitated in the Upper West and Bono East Regions as part of the facility
He said under the TSIP 1,077km of roads would be rehabilitated within the next two years saying that the Trunk Road component would be paved and the feeder roads would be mainly gaveled
Dr Bawumia said the TSIP had been developed to support infrastructure.
According to the Vice President, Tatale-Yendi-Tamale Road would be undertaken as an Output and Performance Based Road Contract, which entails breaking the Project into two Lots.
He said the Lot one Construction is Tatale-YendiRoad of 61.98km to be undertaken by – China Jiangxi International Economic and Technical Cooperation Co. Ltd. (CJIC) and China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) Joint Venture.
He added that Lot two Construction of the Yendi-Tamale Road of 106km was to be undertaken by a Joint Venture between China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE) and the Chongqing International Construction Corporation (CICO).
He stated that, the construction of the roads came with provision of socio-economic infrastructure support to the respective communities of the project.
“These complementary interventions would come in the form of schools, boreholes, and clinics within the project communities (Tamale, Mion, Yendi, Zabzugu andTatale),” he said.
He, however, urged Ministry of Roads and Highways to ensure that there was adequate traffic management measures to reduce the inconvenience that it would bring to travelling public and residents.
The Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr KwasiAmoako-Atta,assured the Vice President that the contractors would finished within the speculated time
He said the contractor would engage local Labour both skilled and unskilled in the communities of operation
The Overlord of Dagbon, NdanYa-Na MahamaAbukari, in a speech read for him commended the government for the massive infrastructure development in the area and appealed to the contractors to speed up the work.
BY TIMES REPORTER
