By Iddi Yire, GNA
Bolgatanga, Aug 14, GNA – Mr Kwami Governs Agbodza, the Minister of Roads and Highways, has given the assurance that the Bolgatanga-Bawku-Pulmakom road project will be completed on schedule.
The Minister gave the assurance during President John Dramani Mahama’s inspection tour of the road as part of his two-day Resetting Ghana Tour of the Upper East Region.
Mr Agbodza said he believed that the corridor was one of the most important corridors in the country.
“Works actually started in 2016 and were funded through a loan. Unfortunately, after we lost the elections in 2016, the project was abandoned for a while, and the government subsequently decided to take a loan to continue the project,” Mr Agbodza said.
“Unfortunately, as we have seen with many of these projects, the works stalled again because of the debt crisis.”
He said the road had been divided into sections to make it convenient to execute the project.
“For the avoidance of doubt, they are not different roads for different contractors; they are sections of the same project.”
The Minister said the President had directed that; the project must be completed alongside the Big Push projects by the end of 2027.
He reiterated that the road was no longer being executed through a loan and that they had had a very fruitful discussion with the Minister of Finance, and he encouraged them to put the project on the national budget, which they had done.
“Today, you will notice that the contractors are back on site. They have started cleaning up, bringing in equipment, and preparing to commence full-scale work. We are committed to making sure that they do not leave the site again,” Mr Agbodza said.
He noted that one of the reasons the contractors previously left the site was that they had raised a certificate for €28 million and were not paid anything on that certificate.
He said the Minister of Finance was supporting the Roads and Highways Ministry to pay at least €8 million of that amount immediately to provide them with the liquidity they need to return to site and continue the work.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei