Akufo-Addo doing 4 interchanges at the cost of one Mahama interchange – Bawumia

Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has revealed the government has done more infrastructural projects with less money, unlike the previous Mahama administration.

At another town hall meeting Tuesday, he pointed out that the government is constructing four interchanges at nearly the same cost of one done by Mahama who is seeking a comeback to power.

Dr Bawumia mentioned the Tema, Pokuase and Obetsebi Lamptey interchanges in the Greater Accra Region and Tamale in the Northern region, all at a total cost of $289million.

But the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange in Accra alone was constructed at $260million, he compared.

“I would just leave that for you to ponder,” he said, suggesting his government has been more prudent than the NDC when it was in power.

Photo: The Kwame Nkrumah Interchange

Commissioned in November 2016, the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange also dubbed ‘Dubai Interchange’ was built to redesign the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, choked after huge increases in human and vehicular traffic.

It is a three-tier interchange which includes a 1.2km flyover from the Busy Internet end of the Ring Road to the Awudome Cemetery, near the Obetsebi-Lamptey Roundabout, with lane markings and street lights.

The ‘Dubai Interchange’ was done in two phases; first one at a cost of €74 million and the second at US$170 million.

 

• The NPP government in 2019, commissioned the redevelopment of the Obetsebi Lamptey Circle into an interchange at a reported $39 million for phase one and $100million for phase two.

The first part of the project is being done with a $39-million loan from a British bank, HSBC, secured under the previous administration and approved by Parliament in August 2016.

• The one-kilometre interchange in Tamale is the first-ever in the Northern region. It is part of the projects funded through the $2 billion Government of Ghana-Sinohydro Master Project Support Agreement. Government has said it will cost $35million.

 

• The newly constructed Tema Motorway Interchange  Phase 1 was financed with a grant of $54 million secured from the Japanese government.

 

• There is also the $65-million Pokuase Interchange project in the Ga West Municipality in the Greater Accra Region.

The Pokuase Interchange project comprises a four-tier interchange at Pokuase, a five-kilometre Awoshie-Pokuase road, two-kilometre Accra-Nsawam road, two-kilometre Kwabenya road and 10 kilometres of local roads to improve traffic flow in parts of Accra.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia also pointed out that for eight years that the previous NDC government was in power, it could not complete one major road in three regions, the Upper West, Upper East and Savanna regions.

But already in the first-term of the Akufo-Addo government, these regions have at least one major road, he said.

With the general elections in December beckoning, the NPP government has shifted into campaign mode.