Devt plans for the City of Accra is in progress- Kufuor

Accra, Oct.17, GNA- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday said co-ordination between government and experts on the development plans for the City of Accra for the past two years had been very cordial. President Kufuor made the observation when a delegation from the Ghana Infrastructure Limited working in partnership with the government on the "Heart of Accra" concept called on him at the Castle, Osu.

The concept is to regenerate the City of Accra through projects using Private and Public Partnership (PPP) with funding from the United Kingdom (UK) Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund.

President Kufuor said Ghana was also honoured that Miss Elsie Owusu, a Ghanaian-born British citizen and Co-ordinator of the concept, was decorated with the "Officer of the Order of the British Empire" (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.

The award was in recognition of her achievements over a decade with the Society of Black Architects (SOBA) in the UK including the work now being done in partnership with the Ghana government to develop some urban and rural projects.

Miss Owusu, 50, who led the delegation showed the award to President Kufuor and said a lot had been put in place for the physical regeneration of the City of Accra since the past two years.

She said the first phase of the project would be on mass transit transport in key areas such as Madina and MacCharty Hill to the central business area of Accra to ease the transportation problems in the areas.

Miss Owusu said there was the need to provide a safe and reliable transport system in line with international standards in Accra to put the city on the world stage of public transport system.