By Yussif Ibrahim
Kumasi, Sept. 19, GNA – Mr Francis Asenso-Boakye, the Minister for Roads and Highways, has announced plans to dualise the Tafo-Mampong road as government takes steps to address the perennial congestion on that stretch which is seen as a major enabler of economic activities.
He made the announcement at Tafo as part of his working visit to the Ashanti Region where he inspected some ongoing road projects.
Contractors and the design team for the project have started preliminary works for the first phase which is a total of 23 kilometres from Suame Roundabout to Asonomaso Nkwanta.
It comes with service lanes, drainages, pedestrian crossing facilities, passenger walkways, and the goal is to improve the movement of goods and services along the corridor.
“Today, I am here in Tafo to announce the start of another major road project in Kumasi, which is the dualisation and upgrading of the Tafo-Mampong road,” he told the media.
He said for about 15 years, residents and road users had experienced congestion on the stretch because of urbanisation, increase in population, increase in economic activities, as well as the influx of tricycles on the road.
The situation, according to Mr Asenso-Boakye, was the reason the government was taking yet another important road intervention in Kumasi.
“It is instructive to note that it will not only serve the towns along the stretch in Ashanti, but also those who enter Kumasi from the northern part through this route,” he pointed out.
Given the congestion along the corridor, the Minister acknowledged the construction was going to create a lot of inconvenience and pleaded with residents and road users to bear with the contractors as they fixed the age-long problem.
He touted the impressive performance of the government in the road sector since 2017, indicating that its achievement was unprecedented under the Fourth Republic.
He said the government inherited a total road network of 78,403 kilometres in 2017, and increased it to 94,203 kilometres by June 2023, representing a 20 per cent increase.
The expectation is that the road network would reach about 100,000 kilometres at the end of a national road inventory survey currently ongoing, Mr. Asenso-Boakye opined.
He said a lot of investment had gone into road infrastructure across the country over the past seven years to improve the quality of roads in the country.
GNA