Private sector needs assistance to import equipment

Government should assist the private sector to import at more affordable prices road construction machines and equipment to support the road construction industry, a road contractor said on Monday.

Mr Francis Obinami Cobbinah, Managing Director of Obinami Brothers Construction, said the scarcity of proper road construction equipment made the few available to attract expensive hiring fees. This makes the government to incur higher over-run cost for road construction projects.

Mr Cobbinah was speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Teshie Nungua Estates in Accra on Monday after a party for his workers for successfully constructing a bridge over a stream leading to the Sango Lagoon.

He stated that the hiring of an excavator with a compressor hammer for 5.5 million cedis a day was on the high side, and said government had to support the private sector to establish more equipment rental points throughout the country.

Mr Cobbinah said excessive pressure existed on the few road construction equipment in country and many of them break down frequently.

He said it was frustrating to many road contractors to hire equipment only for them to break down a few hours later on site.

Mr Cobbinah called on renting companies to adopt a culture of maintenance and have the machines well serviced all the time.

He appealed to the government to let banks advance loans to construction companies to facilitate their operations.

The construction of the new bridge, which was part of a drainage system for the Teshie-Nungua Estates, became necessary when the old gutter became too small and the bridge became too low to contain floodwaters in times of heavy rains.

Financed by the Department of Urban Roads of the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA), the demolition of the old bridge and the construction of the new one took 11 weeks.