Kwafokrom, Dec. 22, GNA- Government has targeted the dualisation of all major roads in the country in the next ten years, Mr Kwasi Amoako-Attah, Minister of Roads and Highways, has said.
He said the Government was concerned about the high rate of road crashes and its associated deaths and had, therefore, resolved to mobilise needed resources to embark on a massive dualisation agenda to reduce road crashes.
He said Government’s plan was to ensure that the dualisation of all trunk roads be completed by 2024.
Mr Amoako-Attah said this when he officially opened the Kumasi section of the Kwafokrom-Apedwa road, which is part of the Accra-Kumasi Highway dualisation project, on Wednesday.
The 37.1km road, currently being dualised by the China International Water and Electric Corporation, will be opened to traffic throughout the festive season to ease traffic flow.
“Between now and 2024, a lot of work is going to be done.
“We are going to make sure that by 2024, as many trunk roads as possible, will have been dualised,” Mr Amoako-Attah said.
The Kwafokrom-Apedwa project, as of Wednesday morning, was close to 80 per cent complete, the contractors told the Minister, during the visit.
Mr Amoako-Attah expressed delight about the progress of work, stressing that the dualisation of the road would help to prevent head-on collision that often occurred on the stretch.
He directed the contractors not to fully close the road when work resumed in January.
Mr Amoako-Attah urged all motorists to drive cautiously and observe all road traffic regulations to ensure accident-free festive season.
Chief Superintendent Stephen Kofi Ahiatafu, Eastern Regional MTTD Commander, said officers would be positioned at vantage points on the road within the week to enforce adherence to traffic regulations.
“This year, Eastern region alone recorded 433 deaths and this road ( Kwafokrom-Apedwa Highway) recorded a chunk of the accidents,” he noted.
Officials from the Ghana Highway Authority, who accompanied the Minister together with other dignataries, ordered the removal of billboards that had been mounted on the shoulders of the road.
“Billboards are not road signs and we don’t need them,” one of the officials, said while directing the removal of a giant billboard along the road, near Asuboi.
In an interaction with some motorists, they expressed delight about the dualisation of the road and appealed to the Government to expedite work on the dualisation of the entire Accra-Kumasi Highway to reduce road accidents.
Some residents of Suhum Okorase, appealed to the Government to construct footbridges along the road to bring an end to increasing pedestrian knockdowns.
GNA