Phase II of Kuamsi/Techiman road to be constructed

Nkoranza (B/A), April 25, GNA - The European Union (EU) has agreed to finance the construction of the second phase of the Kumasi/Techiman highway.

The 73-kilometre road, which stretched from Samproso in the Offinso District to Techiman, will soon be awarded on contract for work to begin.


Dr Richard Winfred Anane, the Minister of Road Transport, said this at Nkoranza on Monday during an inspection of some road construction projects in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.


They were the 40-kilometre Kumasi/Samproso portions of the Techiman highway, which is being financed by the EU at the cost of 187,651,023 billion cedis and is expected to complete on May 2007. Others were the 50.96-kilometre Ejura/Nkoranza and the 58.3-kilometre


Aframso/Sekyedumasi/Nkoranza roads that the German and Ghana governments are financing at the cost of 31.67 billion cedis and 41.99 billion cedis respectively and will be completed in June.

Dr Anane said the African Development Bank had also agreed to finance the reconstruction of the 63-kilometre Techiman/Kintampo road to complete the Kumasi-Tamale highway.


Dr Anane said he was not happy about the delay in the execution of the Aframso/Sekyedumasi/Nkoranza road by the contractor. He said most contractors had so many jobs scattered across the country and as such they were unable to transport their equipment from one site to the other on time and also mobilize adequate funds to executive their projects.


The Minister said the government was now restricting one contractor to three nearby regions to ensure easy movement of equipment from one site to the other and thereby reduce delays in the execution of jobs. Dr Anane also inspected the Asafo-Adum interchange in Kumasi and attributed the delays of the project to structural changes and additional works which were added. He appealed to residents of Kumasi to exercise restraint to enable the contractors complete the work by July.