By Dennis Peprah
Kuotokrom (B/R), Sept. 15, GNA-Sames Limited, the contractor executing the 15-kilometre New-Dormaa-Kuotokrom-Yawhima road in the Sunyani Municipality has resumed work and given assurance to complete the project within eight months.
There is a public outcry over the abandonment and resultant delay of the work on the project, which is among the critical and busiest roads in the municipality.
Both drivers and residents along the road said they were worried because the condition of the road had worsened since the contractor stopped work for months.
The aggrieved residents told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during a visit that they could not contain the dusty and muddy conditions of the dual carriage road during the dry and wet seasons and appealed to the government to facilitate the completion of the stretch.
But, in an interview with the GNA, Mr Samuel Kwabena Opoku, the Managing Director of Sames Limited, a Sunyani-based Road construction firm, partly attributed the “snail pace” of work to delays of government payments.
He indicated the government had made some payments to contractors recently, saying “we recently received some payments from the government that is why we have been able to resume work on the project”.
Mr Opoku commended the government for the payments and expressed the hope that the government would facilitate payments of its outstanding debts to empower and position both road and building contractors to complete for use abandoned projects spread across the country.
He also expressed concern about rising cases of theft and burgling at the construction sites, saying the problem was also slowing down and impeding execution of the road project.
Mr Opoku therefore called for cooperation from the residents and the road users, assuring that work on the project would be completed soon because it had been progressing for some time now.
During the visit, the GNA sighted drainage systems along the stretch were virtually completed, while earth moving machines were graveling portions of the dual carriage road.
GNA