Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia on Tuesday cut the sod for construction works to begin on the 88-kilometre Hohoe-Jasikan/Dodo Pepesu stretch of the Eastern Corridor roads of the Oti Region.
The Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu Project forms part of the Phase One of the $2billion Government of Ghana/Sinohydro Master Project Agreement.
Vice President Bawumia was accompanied by the Minister of Roads and Highways. Mr Kwesi Amoako-Attah and some traditional leaders of the Oti Region at the groundbreaking ceremony in Jasikan.
Dr Bawumia said the Hohoe-Jasikan stretch had a long and painful history of neglect under the erstwhile government. The Vice President said of all the critical roads listed in the 2020 Budget, Hohoe-Jasikan/Dodo Pepesu were the only roads to commence.
He said the Contractors for those projects mobilised to site two weeks before Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister, presented the 2020 Budget to Parliament on November 13, noting that, at the time those projects were initiated, both roads were part of the Volta Region.
The Eastern Corridor Roads project, which are allotted as N2 of the National Road Network, begins from the Tema Motorway through to the Volta, Oti, Northern, North East and Upper East regions to neighbouring Burkina Faso.
Dr Bawumia assured residents of Oti Region that government would ensure the project was completed on schedule, and thus, reiterated government’s determination to fix all critical roads across the country.
He announced that groundbreaking ceremony would be performed on the Cape Coast inner city roads and Nyinahini area roads this week under the Infrastructure for Bauxite facility.
“The commitment of government to the development of the trunk road network is evidenced by the many Road and Bridge Development Projects as well as the numerous road maintenance projects ongoing across the country. “Under the Critical Roads Programme for Highway construction, Oti Region would have the Dambai Towns Roads, Nkonya-Wurapong-Kwamikrom Road and the Jasikan-Worawora Road.
“Government is on course to fixing all critical road projects in a holistic approach so that every part of the country has durable roads,” Dr Bawumia assured.
On his part, Roads and Highways Minister, Mr Kwasi Amoako-Atta, re-affirmed government’s commitment to making a significant impact in road infrastructural development across the country.
The Minister also assured the people of Oti region, particularly the youth, of government’s resolve to ensure that the local content clauses in the Sinohydro Agreement were strictly adhered to, in order to create jobs for the indigenes.
The project, he said, would provide many auxiliary jobs for contractors, artisans, cooks and many people with varied professional skills in the value chain.
On behalf of the chiefs and people of Oti Region, Nana Aburam Akpandza V, the Paramount Chief of Buem and Chairman of Buem Traditional Council, who chaired the ceremony, expressed satisfaction over strides government was making towards road infrastructural development in the area.
GNA
