N1 highway to be completed on schedule – MiDA boss

The Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Development Authority [MiDA], Martin Eson-Benjamin has given the assurance that the Tetteh Quarshie - Mallam road [also known as N1] currently under construction with funding from the Millennium Challenge Corporation will be completed on schedule.

The 14.1km stretch of road according to the MiDA boss will be completed by its original deadline of January 31, 2012.

Speaking on Multi TV’s current affairs show, pm: EXPRESS, Mr. Eson-Benjamin said the first stretch of the road, from Tetteh Quarshie to Apenkwa [Lot 1] should also be ready by December 2011.

He explained that the Lot 1 portion of the road should have been completed by June this year “but unfortunately, we couldn’t lay hands on the type of bitumen that we’re looking for so that delayed the job by 4 months for which reason we had to extend the time for them to be able to finish in December and they will do that in December”.

According to him, the Tetteh Quarshie to Mallam junction road should have been completed in 1965 when the Tema motorway was built. The failure to complete the project during that period he noted has given rise to the encroachment on the land earmarked for the construction of the road.

This development has had a negative impact on MiDA which has had to dole out some 10 million dollars to compensate the eleven thousand people whose businesses or properties along the N1 highway were affected.

“At the initial count, we had 11,000 people on that corridor doing all sorts of business” he recounted explaining that “some of them were iterant hawkers, some of them were people with kiosks, some of them had property [buildings and the rest of it] and now that you have the road reservation it means that you have to move the people off the road and that was difficult”.

According to the MiDA boss, 94 percent of the $547 million dollar facility given to the country has been received.

“If you say 94 percent, it means that the others that you have not requested for are things that happen that are paid for as you go along. For example, salaries are paid for on a monthly basis so you cannot request for that in advance” he explained.

The Millennium Challenge Account’s compact ends in about 5 months and Mr. Eson-Benjamin explained that “$547 million was given to us and we now have as we sit here exactly about 5 months to end the compact itself. So far, $513 million has been committed [and that means] those are things we’ve signed contracts for and people are on the process working. And $374 million of that has actually arrived in the country and has been paid to people which means that the work that is going on at the N1, the Tetteh Quarshie to Mallam road, is being paid for on a monthly basis. So between now and the end of the programme, they should have taken their share of it out of whatever balance is left”.

“So from our position, we believe we have committed 94% of the money and that at the end of the day, we should be able to dispense of the whole amount to people who have signed contracts with us” he noted.

The 14.1km highway when completed would be re-christened the George Walker Bush motorway, after the immediate past American President, George Bush during whose tenure the Millennium Challenge Account’s compact was secured by Ghana.

16 countries initially pitched for funding from the Millennium Challenge Corporation and Ghana was among the 9 countries selected to benefit from the Corporation’s account with Ghana receiving the largest chunk of the $2.1 billion available to the 9 countries.