President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday broke grounds for the official commencement of work on the Kasoa interchange with a promise to make asphalt about 95 kilometres of urban roads in the Central Region but not before jabbing critics of the project as a new breed of political quantity surveyors.
He said the interchange which was financed by a Brazilian loan facility would also have two flyovers at the Galiea and CP areas in the Ga South District of the Greater Accra Region.
The President said urban areas that would benefit from the 95-Kilometre asphalt roads included Cape Coast, Winneba, Elmina, Mankessim, and Agona Swedru.
He said the construction of the Kasoa projects were transformational projects that would contribute to the development of the area.
President Mahama said apart from the flyovers, government would also build an ultra-modern Polyclinic to replace the old one that was affected by the relocation exercise to pave way for construction work.
The construction of the flyovers and interchange would ease the perennial traffic on the Kasoa-Winneba road, which at its peak time records five kilometres per hour traffic movement, particularly at the weekends.
Apart from the road works, government would also construct ancillary projects such as crèches, day care centres, bus terminals, boreholes in 10 communities in the area and improve on the link roads in the Kasoa Municipality.
President Mahama said the Kasoa projects which would be substantially completed by October this year would allow free movement of vehicles from Accra to the Western Region and the vice versa.
The President also promised to construct the 33-kilometre Kasoa-Amasaman road which would facilitate the movement of vehicles from Kasoa and its environs to Kumasi and other major cities along that route.
On the cost of the Kasoa interchange project, President Mahama condemned his political opponents for 'wrongly throwing the dust into the eyes of Ghanaians' that the project cost has been inflated.
A major critic of the project has been the New Patriotic Party’s flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, who challenged the president to go back to the drawing board to reassess the current cost of the Interchange project because, in his view, it was overpriced.
“Often if you want to know the cost of an item you have to examine the item and examine the component that goes into making the item.
“You cannot just stand at a distance and look at two items and determine that the cost of the item must be this, just because you are looking at it from a distance …and, so, when you have a new breed of political quantity surveyors, who can just stand and look at something and say it’s too expensive then you have a problem,” Mr Mahama impliedly shot back.
President Mahama tasked the Minister of roads and Highways to form a committee involving all stakeholders in the demolition and relocation exercise to determine the kind of compensation that was to be given to the affected people in those exercises.
Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Minister for Roads and Highways, said the construction of the flyovers and interchange had become necessary because about 23,000 vehicles use the road on daily basis creating heavy traffic congestion.
He said the length of the interchange and flyover at the Kasoa traffic light area would be 270 metres.
Madam Irene Vida Gala, Brazilian Ambassador to Ghana, commended government for maintaining peace over the years and gave the assurance that Brazil would continue to support Ghana with her development agenda.
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