By Samuel Akumatey
Hohoe (V/R), July 27, GNA – Mr Francis Asenso-Boakye, Minister for Roads and Highways, has charged the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) and various contractors working on the Eastern Corridor highway to ensure its prompt completion.
The approximately 700 km highway provides a shorter route from the port city of Tema to the northern parts of the country, and construction has been ongoing for about a decade.
The Minister, during a recent tour of road infrastructure in the Volta and Oti regions, visited the various lots of the project and interacted with the respective project executioners.
The two regions hold a significant portion of the highway, and the Minister said its completion held economic prospects for the many districts and communities it traversed, therefore, the Government was keen in its realisation.
Among civil construction firms working on the project is indigenous firm First Sky Construction, and some multinational companied including Chinese Green House Construction.
Mr Asenso-Boakye commended works of particularly First Sky which resulted in the completion of several kilometres of the stretch while executing some portions of the contracts that facilitated the resealing of the entire Atimpoku to Asikuma Junction of the Corridor.
The Company will soon undertake the pulverising of existing asphalt on the Peki section of the Eastern Corridor as it completes work on the 45 km Asikuma Junction to Have lot, which already enhanced travel within the region.
Green House Construction’s work on Have to Hohoe road drew the concern of the Minister.
The project, funded by Cocoa Roads, begun in August 2020 but was suspended in 2022 due to challenges with variation orders.
The Contractor had resumed work when the Minister visited but Mr Asenso-Boakye expressed concerns over the Ve Golokwati to Hohoe stretch, which remained in the most deplorable state following the project suspension, and he instructed the Highway Authority to reallocate the portion to a competent entity.
Access to the Hohoe Municipality using the Eastern Corridor had been cut off, and the Minister lamented its toll on livelihoods in the enclave.
“The Hohoe to Golokwati Road for me is the most critical and this is passing through the main Hohoe town. You can see the dust and the inconvenience it is causing the good people of Hohoe. I believe that this needs immediate attention. So, I have instructed that a very good contractor is sourced to come and attend to this very important road so that we can bring relief to the good people of Hohoe.”
The Minister, with heads of the GHA and other departments, went to the Oti region, stopping at the project lots to ascertain their progress.
The stretch from Jasikan to Kadjebi had been fully completed years prior by Israeli firm Rolider, while works were at completion stages on the stretch from Hohoe to Jasikan.
The Minister who begun the tour with the inspection of the Atimpoku to Asikuma resealing, also made a stop at recently flooded road culvert at Juapong where he instructed the Highways Authority to undertake dredging and other maintenance works to avert future floods.
Mr Asenso-Boakye proceeded to the Volta Regional Capital and commended the dualization of the Ho to Sokode road, a 10.5 km completed last year.
He then visited the ongoing dualization of the Ho By-pass, also a 10.5km being undertaken by First Sky and included the internal roads of the University of Health and Allied Sciences.
The Minister told the media at the end of the tour, “in general I am impressed with the tour, and you can see the progress that we have made right from Asikuma Junction, and you saw the beautiful ho main road dualization that would enhance socioeconomic activities.
“We saw the work that we are doing on the Ho bypass, and the rate at which it is progressing. We’ve also seen the Asikuma to Have Road, and I am happy that I was able to come, and I believe it will urge the contractors to work very harder and even faster. And those areas that we saw that the contractors are slacking, we are taking the necessary actions so that the work can go on faster so that it can bring a lot of relief to a lot of people.”
GNA