Roads in Adoagyiri-Coaltar-Donkrokyiwa need coal-tar - MP

Accra , March 17, GNA - Mr Samuel Ayeh-Paye, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayesuano, on Tuesday appealed to the Minister of Roads and Highways to consider giving the Adoagyiri-Coaltar-Donkrokyiwa a face-lift by tarring the roads in the area.

He said it was an irony that the area was called coal-tar but motorist plied the road without seeing any sign of coal-tar.

Mr Ayeh-Paye made the appeal when he asked the Minister when the contractors working on the road from Adoagyiri-Coaltar-Dokrokyiwa would return to site to continue the project, since all the contractors had left the site.

Mr Joe Gidisu, Minister for Roads and Highways and MP for Central Tongu, said a lot of economic activity takes place in the area, stressing that there was the need to have a good motorable road, even if a gravel-surfaced one for the meantime.

Mr Gidisu said the road which was located in the Suhum-Kraboa-Coal-tar District in the Eastern region was programmed for bitumen surface treatment in phases.

The road sections were awarded in phases, with phases one and two given out between September 2002 and November 2003, whiles phase three was awarded in August 2007. Phases one and two were contracts were terminated in August, 2008 and the phase three terminated in January, 2010, all for non-performance.

He said the remaining works had been revised and re-packaged for completion under the 2010 programme. This was to allow for the provision of all weather access roads for the beneficiary communities. On completion, bitumen surface treatment would be considered in phases as far as budgetary provision would allow.

Mr Frank Boakye Agyen, MP for Effiduasi-Asokore, also asked the Minister when road networks in his constituency would be upgraded. Though he provided answers to the question, the MP replied that he had digressed from the question, because the towns the Minister mentioned where road works were going on were not in the Effiduasi Asokore constituency. Mr Gidisu promised to come back with specific answers on the road networks in the constituency in question.