Drivers, residents angry about abandonment of work on Sunyani-Odumase road

The Abandonment of work on the rehabilitation for the expansion of the about 2.2-kilometre Sunyani-Odumase road has attracted the anger of drivers and residents in the Sunyani West Municipality of the Bono Region.

The Ghana News Agency (GNA) gathered Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Member of Parliament for Sunyani West and Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, to perform a ground-breaking ceremony for rehabilitation work to commence on the project in March 2023.

Checks revealed that J.A Adom Construction Limited, a Sunyani-based road construction firm, responsible for executing the project, is expected to complete the project within 18 months.

Before the project began, traders, artisanal workers, and shop owners were forcibly evacuated.

During the visit, the GNA noticed the road had since been blocked due to an uncompleted bridge.

Speaking in an interview with the GNA, some commercial drivers and residents threatened to register their displeasure about the road’s condition.

Emmanuel Kofi Osei, a taxi driver said the blockage of that road had caused inconvenience to the drivers because they had to go through the Mayfair junction, thus a longer and head on to Odumase.

“Since the main road was blocked, it has been difficult to get a taxi from Sunyani to Odumase after work and at night, especially on Wednesdays, the main market day in Sunyani,” Madam Joyce Yaa Serwaa, a market woman stated.

Some of the resident traders and shop owners who were evacuated to pave the way for the work regretted that their economic activities had collapsed because they could not find anywhere to relocate their shops.

“This is very sad because if they are not ready, why did the contractor eject us from the shoulders of the road,” Frank Agyekum, an affected shop owner, indicated.

However, a reliable source at the Bono Regional Office of the Ghana Highways Authority who spoke to the GNA on condition of anonymity expressed concern about the lack of government funding to facilitate the completion of the project.

The source said about GHC68 million was needed to complete the project which included some drainage and pavement works.