KMA warns encroachers to vacate sites earmarked for electricity project

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has warned encroachers on the sites earmarked for the Electricity Distribution Sector Reinforcement Project (EDSREP), to voluntarily vacate those areas by Monday, May 31, 2021.

The Assembly said failure to do so would attract forceful ejection.

“It is worth noting that the area around the Project sites is not conducive for any activity.

“Additionally, it is not safe for humans to undertake any activity there due to the high load of power (33, 000 volts) of the facility,” a statement signed by Ms Henrietta A.K. Aboagye, copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Kumasi, noted.

According to the statement, the Ministry of Energy through the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project was implementing the EDSREP, an intervention to improve power supply to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and some part of the Central Business District (CBD).

The EDSREP risked their contract being annulled by the financiers if works were not executed according to the programme of works to meet the project completion timelines, the Assembly stated.

Due to encroachment around the project sites, the contractor had not been able to mobilize fully to the site to complete the project as scheduled.

The statement indicated that the contractor’s engagements with the encroachers to vacate those sites had dragged on for almost three years.

Currently, spaces allotted for the EDSREP, including those close to the Maternal and Child Health Hospital (MCHH) near Pampaso in the CBD, are being occupied by squatters.