[Photos] Minister angry with contractors over Eastern Corridor road

The sluggish nature of the execution of work by Chinese contractors working on the Eastern Corridor Road Project has angered the Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini.

Alhaji Inusah Fuseini who paid a working visit to the project site on Tuesday questioned why the China Jiangxi International Corporation, contractors for the Nkwanta-Oti Damanko stretch of the project had failed to return to work despite being paid.

[contextly_sidebar id=”zGvYKNzcsIAijDJ4AHTrVDyMPJAgvdhX”]The Eastern corridor road, which will connect the southern part of the country to the northern part, covers a distance of about 695 kilometers.

Residents of beneficiary communities had bemoaned the slow pace of work on the project while urging government to put pressure on the contractors to complete the work on schedule.

Recently, some residents in one of the beneficiary communities in the Volta Region, demonstrated to protest against what they described as bad road network in the region.

Speaking to journalists after touring the Asikuma –Nkwanta stretch of the project, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini observed that the contractors have taken the country for granted hence delaying the project.

“When they realized that the Chinese money was not coming, instead of working and coming to establish the fact that we can’t pay, they decided to wait to see whether we have money before they will do the work. We want to be serious and hard on them.”

“You can’t come, promise that you will do the work and when the work is granted, you will go to sleep and when they ask you, you will lie that you have not been paid. This is a priority project and we told them from the beginning. We want to have this project completed before 2016 either than that what are we going to tell the people?”

Meanwhile a monitoring team has been established by government to oversee the speedy construction of the Eastern Corridor Road Project, which is expected to be completed by 2016.

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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin