Accra, May 22, GNA – Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, on Friday, cut the sod at the Burma Camp, in Accra, for works to start on the upgrading of all the barracks roads in the garrisons of the Ghana Armed Forces.
He said the 250 kilometre-project was not only to ensure that vehicles were well maintained; but to also provide easy access and beautify the barracks.
Vice President Bawumia pointed out that the Ministry of Roads and Highways started the rehabilitation of the roads within the barracks in 2016.
The Myohaung Barracks and Air Force Base in Takoradi; Uaddara Barracks and Central Command in Kumasi; Kamina and Bawa Barracks in Tamale and Volta Barracks in Ho benefitted from the projects.
“However, they did not touch the inner roads. Today’s short ceremony is therefore, to mark the beginning of the inner roads upgrade. This will ensure that the remaining roads in the barracks have asphaltic overlay,” he said.
Additionally, modern traffic lights would be installed across all the barracks and all garrisons.
He said the project, being executed under the auspices of the Ministry of Roads and Highways, was a demonstration that the Government was not relenting on its agenda, in declaring this year as the ‘Year of Roads’, “even in the face of the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic facing us”.
The Vice President urged the contractors to ensure that high quality work was done for the roads to last.
Vice President Bawumia recalled that when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took office in January 2017, he pledged to ensure that the security services, as well as all other state institutions, would be given the necessary resources required to perform their functions efficiently and effectively.
The President thus signalled his interest and the importance of what the security forces did for the public good and lauded the major roles they were playing in the nation’s socio-economic development by maintaining peace and security.
He recalled the President’s recent commissioning of the Douala Barracks Accommodation Complex in Burma Camp, which formed part of the Barracks Regeneration Project; adding that 64 families had benefitted from the two-bedroom self-contain apartments.
Before then, he said, the President had also commissioned armoured fighting vehicles and other of all types, including pick-ups, patrol vehicles and more than 50 comfortable buses in fulfilment of his pledge.
He assured them that the Government would continue to address their numerous challenges, which included inadequate and poor state of accommodation facilities, bad roads in the barracks and obsolete equipment.
He said apart from roads, the government was very busily implementing other major projects of infrastructure across the country for Education, Health, Water and Sanitation, Railways, Aviation, Ports and Harbours.
Mr Dominic Nitiwul, the Defence Minister, said the project showed the importance the Government attached to the welfare of the Ghana Armed Forces.
Mr Kwasi Amoako-Attah, the Roads and Highways Minister, said after covering the 250km job, other stretches of roads within the garrisons, which may not be covered should be identified by the Chief of Defence Staff for the attention of Government, through his Ministry.
Lieutenant General Obed Boamah Akwa, the Chief of Defence Staff, said with the beginning of the project, they were on the threshold of a phase of barracks mobility.
“We are now going from the main to arterial roads, thereby creating an efficient road networks across all the garrisons. Undoubtedly, such connectivity and mobility would change the way we live, but it comes also with the added responsibility of road safety and maintenance.”
GNA