New stadium for Cape Coast will come on- Nuhu

Cape Coast, March 20, GNA - The Cape Coast Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Alhaji Muniru Arafat Nuhu on Monday gave the assurance that the construction of a new sports stadium, at Cape Coast for the CAN 2008 tournament, would certainly come on.

He said the site for the proposed project, located within the University of Cape Coast (UCC), has already been cleared and the provision of utilities such as water, electricity and telecommunication gadgets in addition to the construction of access roads took off last November.

Alhaji Nuhu who told the GNA Sports in an interview on Monday at Cape Coast, said initial work on two road networks, a primary and dual carriage roads, both valued at 60 billion cedis has began. The revelation followed enquiries made by the GNA Sports as to the progress of work on the proposed stadium, following a denial by the Vice-Chancellor of the UCC, Reverend Professor Emmanuel Adow Obeng, during the University's congregation on Saturday that the university authorities were hindering the take off of the project.

The Vice-Chancellor had explained that the authorities of UCC were complaining against the campus being used as a thoroughfare to the stadium on its completion and not about its construction in view of the security situation on the campus.

Alhaji Nuhu said a primary road was being constructed to enable the contractors carry equipment to the site and that a dual carriage road is to be constructed from the site through Abakam near the UCC to link the Cape Coast -Elmina highway.

The MCE who is the Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee of the project, said 'KINGSPOK' and 'JUSTMORE', both local construction companies are to undertake the construction of the roads and that streetlights were also being installed by SAPATO Company limited, another local company.

He said the provision of utilities and access roads were expected to be completed within 12 months but added that the contract for the award of construction of the stadium was yet to begin but expressed the hope that it would be done before the end of the month and hinted that the contract was likely to go to an Italian Company.

Mr Matthew Doe, the Regional GFA Chairman said he was happy that the Region had also been selected to have a new stadium, but was of the view that the projected seating capacity should be 40,000 instead of 20,000. He said this is in view of the large number of educational institutions in the region whose students "constitute a large army of youth who are potentially good for sporting activities.

Mr Doe appealed to the CAN 2008 Planning Committee to speed up work to ensure the early construction of the stadium since the site, which was cleared five months ago had started growing weeds again.