Nkroful Road: Ghana Gas Company takes up one block for construction

One of the three blocks making up the 26.5km Essiama-Nkroful road has been taken up by Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) for construction.

The intervention of the state-owned company has become necessary following the deplorable state the ceremonial road has assumed during this raining season.

The current state of the road has not only affected social and economic activities in Ellembelle but activities of companies operating in the District.

The Minister for Roads and Highways Amoako-Attah made known the intervention of Ghana National Gas Company in Parliament on Friday.

He was answering questions on the floor of the house regarding the construction of the road, timelines, contractual agreement and significance of the road to Ghana.

These questions were posed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle in the Western Region, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah.

The MP had questioned why the road had been abandoned following an award of contract for its execution by previous government as far back as September 2015.

The response from the Minister, however, was that the road had been captured by government and divided into three blocks.

Consequently, he said as part of Ghana National Gas Company's oil enclave roads projects slated for construction, one of the blocks got captured for construction.

He told Parliament that the road had been captured as one of the priority roads identified by government for execution this year.

Under the circumstance, he said the 6.5km block which has been awarded on contract will be carried out by Ghana National Gas Company while the remaining 20km will be awarded on contract by central government.

The Minister, therefore, assured that government will monitor progress of work to ensure that contractors engaged will do proper work.

Kwasi Amoako-Atta after briefing Parliament on attempts being made to fix the deplorable nature of the road subsequently had a meeting with the MP for Ellembelle, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah and the Chief of Nkroful, Nana Kwasi Kutuah (I) on the way forward for construction of the road.

Before the current development, the Minister was in the Western Region for a two-day working visit and got visibly angry when he visited Nkroful.

He saw the deplorable road from Esiama to Nkroful, the birthplace of Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and could not believe why it had been abandoned.

The Minister could not fathom why the road that leads to the hometown of Ghana’s first president should be in that poor state for years.

The Esiama-Nkroful road in the Ellembelle District has been in terrible shape for many years despite promises by successive governments to fix it.

The people in the area have been pleading for some elevation of the stretch, considering the fact that the area attracts tourists.

According to the Minister during his visit, he had gathered that the road had been awarded on contract as at 2015. Unfortunately, it was not done because the contractor had not been paid.

He, therefore, asked his directors to re-award the contract to another contractor immediately so that construction works on the road could begin.

Addressing a durbar of chiefs and people later at Nkroful, Mr. Amoako Attah stated emphatically that government would give a facelift to Nkroful, the capital of the district and hometown of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah.

He was disappointed at the bad nature of the roads in the area and gave an assurance that government would put measures in place to fix the roads.

“I agree that the road from Esiama to Nkroful is in a deplorable state, but let me assure you that steps would be taken to repair it”, he assured.

The chiefs in the area have constantly pointed out that Ellembelle District was proud to have attracted so many oil companies but continue to express worry about the deplorable state of the Nkroful road.

They, therefore, appealed to government to construct the road as a sign of recognition for Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

The MP, on the other hand has vowed to intensify campaign in the august house of Parliament to draw attention of government to the construction of the road which appears to give all stakeholders in Ellembelle a nightmare.