The government will soon terminate delayed road constructions in the Ashanti Region, Simon Osei-Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister, has announced.
As part of the Year of Roads initiative, the incumbent government has completed over 1,515 kilometres of road in the Ashanti Region.
The government is still committed to completing major roads linking farming communities in the Ashanti Region to the regional capital, Kumasi, and other regions.
The government has assigned contractors to work on the Juaso through Nkwanta to Obogu 7km road, Banka through Otuokwai to Kokoben 10km road, and the Komeaboye to Saabo junction road.
According to the Ashanti Regional Minister, the poor road network in the Asante Akim South Municipality was affecting residents in and around the area.
During an inspection exercise of some major roads being constructed in the region, Mr Osei-Mensah disclosed that the 12km major road between Komeaboye and Kokoben and the 8km road project between Obogu and Kumeso will be terminated and reassigned to a different contractor to expedite their completion.
“Some of the roads were awarded to three contractors. Unfortunately, the contractors at the beginning and the end have completed their projects, and those within the middle parts have not completed. One of them [the roads] is about eight kilometres, and the other is about 12 kilometres, which we think must be terminated and re-awarded, possibly to the contractor who constructed the other roads within the same vicinity.
“Again, there are some critical routes we need to also have a look at, and that is between Obogu and Kumeso, which is about 8.5 kilometres. That road is very critical because it links Asante South Municipal Assembly to the Eastern region, that is Birim North and this is a very critical road,” he announced to the media.
It will be recalled that in 2022 when the Regional Minister revealed that, “Since 2017, the region has seen 336 separate road contracts with a total length of 6,498.75km. Out of this, 1,515.06km have been completed. Department of Urban Roads has awarded 64 contracts. When you come to the Ghana Highway Authority, they have also awarded 69 contracts and then Feeder Roads has the largest which is about 203 contracts, all summing up to the figure of 336”.