Former First lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings says the interchange project at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle is a misplaced priority.
According to her, money being spent on the construction could have been used to complete the Suhum-Nsawam road which is in a deplorable condition.
The founder of the National Democratic Party (NDP) in an interview with Accra based TV 3 admitted that the vehicular traffic at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle was unbearable to commuters but insisted that the project could have been undertaken at a later time.
[contextly_sidebar id=”eSLMbbAvhCMuVwMMqiu2P9KQ9XuDkYCs”]“I know that it can get a little choked but I also compare whatever we are doing there to the road between Suhum and its environs and I ask myself why would we not finish this rather than come and start a new project all together,” she remarked.
According to her, road constructions play an important role in the socio-economic development of the nation saying, “road constructions are good but it is the most urgent thing? Is that the priority at the moment?”
She bemoaned the haphazard undertaking of various projects which later tend to be abandoned is indicative of poor planning on the part of government.
“It’s as if we are not planning,” she complained, adding that “these are the things we need to access before we go into the infrastructural thing.”
Mrs. Rawlings was certain that the funds being used to construct the project “could have given us water in Accra.”
She however clarified that her comments should not be misconstrued to mean the project is not necessary but “is it urgent at the moment?”
“In the long run, it may be necessary but at the time when it was started, something else could have been done with that money,” she maintained.
The Kwame Nkrumah Circle is a key intersection in Accra which carries about 84,000 vehicles a day.
It constitutes a key bottleneck in the major road network that links the suburban areas of Accra to the central business district.
The project is being funded with a loan from the Brazilian government and being executed by Queiroz Galvao, a Brazilian company, is estimated at 74 million euros.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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