Parliament approves loan for Ofankor-Nsawam road

Accra, Dec.20, GNA - The Republic of China has granted a 28 million dollars interest- free loan facility for the construction of the Ofankor to Nsawam section of the Accra to Kumasi Highway.

The first 17.6 kilometre section from Ofankor is to be improved from the current single carriageway into a two-lane dual carriageway, while the remaining section will be a single carriageway with all sections having asphalt concrete surfacing.

Mr Eugene Atta Agyepong, Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament on presented this in the report on the loan agreement and the House approved it by resolution for commencement of work on the project. The Report said the Accra-Kumasi road is one of the priority projects under the Road Sector Development Project with the various sections having been fully subscribed by Ghana's development partners and are various levels of procurement and construction.

It said the only section needing funding is the Achimota-Ofankor-Nsawam and it is for this reason that the Ghana Government requested for the loan facility for the construction of the Ofankor-Nsawam section of the road.

The principal objective of the project is to contribute towards the Government's goal of poverty reduction, regional integration and economic development by reducing the travel time and vehicle operating cost and to improve road safety for both passengers and freight traffic on the Accra-Kumasi road corridor.

The terms and conditions of the loan of 230,000,000 Reminbi Yuan or 28 million dollars shall be repaid in annual instalments by the Government over a period of ten years from November 2012 to October 2022 with such export commodities of Ghana or such convertible currencies to be agreed by the two Governments.

The Committee in its observations said the reconstruction of the Ofankor-Nsawam section will specifically address the congestion and delay being experienced on the Accra-Nsawam road and the implementation of the project will also facilitate the movement of goods for export as well as for local consumption.

The members expressed concern about the present Nsawam bridge and the Minister of Roads and Transport informed the Committee that Government was prepared to supplement the estimated cost of five million dollars required to replace the bridge in a by-pass arising out of the re-engineering of the road's portion.

The Committee also deliberated on the issue of dual carriage road with two lanes on each side and expressed the need for concrete islands between the two to avoid pedestrian crossing from one side to the carriage to another and also vehicles making u-turn arbitrarily from one lane to the other to prevent avoidable road accidents and traffic hold-ups.

The Committee said it was happy that with the completion of the portion of the Accra-Kumasi Highway, the main artery road from the south to the north of Ghana through the sahelian countries will improve substantially Trans-Ecowas trade and co-operation and bring closer the dreams of economic integration.