Cabinet approves BOT arrangement for dualisation of the Accra-Kumasi trunk road

Cabinet has approved the Build, Operate and Transfer arrangement for the dualisation of the Accra-Kumasi trunk road and submitted to Parliament for consideration.

Mr Joe Gidisu, Minister of Roads and Highways, told the Meet-The-Press session in Accra that the Ministry continued to engage the private sector using the Private Public Partnership schemes for the financing, construction and management of road infrastructure.

He said the Ministry had registered various PPP projects with the Ministry of Finance and discussions were at various stages.

Some of the projects include dualisation of Accra-Kumasi Highway, refurbishment and expansion of Accra-Tema Motorway, overpass at Teshie Link, Dualisation of Accra-Takoradi Highway and Western Corridor roads Phase 1.

Mr Gidisu said contract for the financing, design, construction and maintenance of an overpass on the Motorway at Teshie Link had been signed with Link Infrastructure Company Limited.

He said the flyover, estimated at the cost of $50 million, when completed residents and motorists bordering the motorway would be able to cross over the motorway without going through the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange.

“The concessionaire is currently at the design stage and physical works are planned to commence in 2013,” he said, adding that evaluation had been done for Expression of Interest in the Accra-Takoradi road and the report submitted to the World Bank.

Mr Gidisu said US$234 million out of the $3 billion Chinese loan had been committed to the completion of the La Beach Road project and the Accra Intelligent Management Traffic System.

He said the contract had been signed while the Finance Ministry was awaiting the approval of the subsidiary agreement by the China Development Bank.

Additionally, about $180 million will be used to upgrade 400 kilometres of Gravel Roads to bitumen surfacing and 300 kilometres of earth roads to gravel surface to improve access roads under the Eastern Corridor Multi-Modal Transportation Project.

The Minister said the Transport Sector Project, which was in the first year of implementation, had as its component rehabilitation and spot improvement of feeder roads, adding that 50 out of 84 contracts awarded had been completed.

Mr Gidisu said the construction of the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange would commence in 2013, following an agreement with the Brazillian Government to construct a three-tier vehicular interchange at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.

He said the first flyover would carry traffic from Ring Road Central to Ring Road West while the second flyover connects the Akasanoma Road and the Ring Road West and the middle tier is a roundabout and all other movements are streamed to the roundabout.

On the Ghana Road Fund, Mr Gidisu said for the nine months through to September an amount of GH¢189 million had accrued to the fund.

He said out of this the Fund allocated GH¢127 million to the three agencies to undertake maintenance and minor rehabilitation works for 2012.

The Minister said the Fund was exploring other sources to increase revenue into the fund, including developing a policy framework to regulate the use of LPG powered vehicles and to institute appropriate legal basis or mechanism for vehicles using LPG to pay a levy to the Road Fund.

There are also plans to establish additional toll booths on selected trunk roads and automation of toll collection on the Accra-Tema Motorway, saying the automation had helped in minimizing leakage of revenue.