The Chairman of the Council of State, Cecilia Johnson, has called on the Ministry of Roads and Highways (MRH) and other stakeholders to effectively monitor road construction projects to ensure that roads executed were of the highest standards.
This she noted will save the nation huge amounts of money, while ensuring that good quality and safe roads were delivered.
Madam Johnson made the call in a speech read on her behalf at the opening of the 2014 Annual Retreat of the MRH in Tamale on Thursday to review its performance over the past year and plan for the years ahead.
Her speech was read on her behalf by Alhaji Mohammed Bawa, Member of the Council of State.
The two-day retreat, which is on the theme: “Re-aligning the Road Portfolio to Meet National Priorities and Adopting Strategies to Bridge the Funding Gap,” is being attended by agencies including the Ghana Highways Authority, Department of Feeder Roads, Department of Urban Roads, Ghana Road Fund Secretariat and Koforidua Training Centre.
Madam Johnson said: “The high expectations from the general populace for good, quality, and all weather roads were reflected in the many complaints about sub-standard works reported in the media.”
She underscored the importance of roads to the country’s socio-economic development and stressed the need for effective and efficient application of scarce resources to bridge the funding gap in the roads sector and therefore called for the judicious use of funds, diligence, circumspection, transparency and honesty in the execution of road projects.
Isaac Adjei Mensah, Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways said the MRH and its agencies had been working on many important projects nationwide including key road corridors and interchanges, which would come on stream as soon as funding was secured.
He said as at the end of August last year, government had undertaken routine maintenance on 9,522 kilometre (km) of trunk road network, 3,900 km on the feeder road network, and 945 km on urban road network.
Mr Adjei Mensah mentioned that the past year also saw periodic maintenance activities comprising of re-graveling/spot improvement and re-sealing works on 120 km trunk road network, 286 km feeder roads network and 1,577 km urban roads network.
According to him, the MRH had signed a contract with Wagner Biro of Belgium to construct pedestrian footbridges at hazardous locations such as the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange, Kaneshie First Light and Odorkor all in Accra, and an overpass at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to reduce vehicular-pedestrian interaction which often resulted in road crashes leading to deaths.
Mr Bede Ziedeng, out-going Northern Regional Minister appealed to government to complete the tarring of Tamale-Salaga Road, the Walewale-Gambaga Road, and some of the major roads in the region to reduce the stress endured by motorists.
Source: GNA