Veep calls for enforcement of regulations

Accra, Nov. 23, GNA- The Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama on Thursday called for strict enforcement of axle load control regulations in Ghana to make road projects cost effective.

"When this is done, it could go a long way to reduce government annual road development and maintenance budget. This will also help free resources to be used by Government in other areas of national development," he said.

Alhaji Mahama was speaking at a day's West African Construction Conference in Accra, was jointly organised by Shell Ghana Limited, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ghana Institute of Engineers on the theme: " Appropriate Technology for Road Construction.". He said, last year, Ghana mobilised over 100 million dollars from both local and foreign sources for indigenous contractors to maintain roads.

Alhaji Mahama said Government also contributed 41 per cent of the 4.2 trillion cedis allocated to the road sector for the 2006 fiscal year.

He said a number of roads in the country were constructed largely by the dictate of donors or the availability of external aid. "Can you imagine the number of kilometres of paved roads the Sub-Region would have had if we had effectively used our local resources and materials for roads?

"This throws a challenge to you our road engineers and other road construction experts from the Sub-Region to look at the possibility of using our local resources and materials to build roads. We should not only build them but also maintain them" he said.

Alhaji Mahama noted that a lot of research had been carried out into the use of local materials for road construction and called for the courage of stakeholders to implement them.

He said a cursory look at the performance of local contractors brought to the fore lack of management and financial management skills as well as modern construction equipment.

To reverse the situation, Alhaji Mahama said Government through the Ministry of Transportation and the German Institute of Technical Cooperation had organised appropriate training programmes for contractors.

Mr Magnus Opare-Asamoah, Deputy Minister of Transportation, who chaired the opening session of the conference said between 2002 and 2005, the total road transport sector expenditure was 9.9 billion cedis. "Road users in Ghana, whose taxes are expended in road

construction, expect to ride on good quality roads, which do not develop potholes and break-up after one rainy season or develop large depressions after a year or two," he said.

He asked participants to understand the requirements of the environment and the expectation of road users with respect to the appropriate technologies they intended to promote. He said Ghana expected that roads to be designed and constructed were maintained to achieve the desired lifespan. 23 Nov.06