President instructs Ministry to award Fulfilso-Sawla Road on contract

Wa, Oct. 26, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor has instructed the Ministry of Roads and Transport to award the Fulfilso-Sawla portion of the Tamale-Wa road to three contractors for quick completion of construction and tarring works to facilitate the movement of goods and people between the Northern and Upper West Regions.

He said the road was an important one and its completion would also help encourage more tourists to patronize the Larabanga mystic stone, the Larabanga mosque and promote the Mole National Park to bring more money to the local people and the government. Mr. Godfred Bayong Tongu, Minister of State at the Ministry of Roads and Transport announced this in Wa on Thursday during an official visit to the Upper West Region to inspect ongoing road projects. He urged contractors undertaking road projects to show sympathy by providing quality work to reduce the suffering and poverty levels of the people in the communities.

He said the road sector had seen a lot of improvement under the NPP administration and commended workers under the Ministry for working hard for the achievement of target goals.

Mr. Tongu said because of the good work undertaken by the contractor, working at the Bole-Bamboi road, new transport companies were locating in the Upper West Region.

He said the Wa-Han, Wa-Dorimon, Wa -Tumu and Nadowli-Lawra-Hamile roads had been awarded on contract to link the region with Burkina Faso to enhance trade between the two countries.

He said construction work on the Sisili-Navrongo road had been terminated and would be given out to a new contractor to start work. Mr. Tongu inspected the 12.8bn cedi 10-kilometre Wa-Han road, which is expected to complete behind schedule. International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank is funding the roads He also inspected a 22-billion cedi 15-kilometre Jirapa-Babile road as well as Babile Town roads and commended the Messrs Ghamini Enterprise and Rajga Construction Firm for providing quality work and urged other contractors to emulate them.

Mr. Francis Addai-Nimoh, an engineer at the Ministry of Roads and Transport said 30 per cent of national budget was invested in road and transport sectors.

He urged engineers supervising road projects to be firm and show ethnics on their duties, saying: "It would be a disgrace if we did roads today and they are washed away tomorrow". Earlier at meeting with workers under the ministry, the workers complained about poor salaries and working conditions and appealed to the government to address it to encourage them to put in their best to promote the road and transport sectors. The workers asked for more metro buses for the region to facilitate the movement of people in the communities.