Hohoe-Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu road works begin - Vice-President cuts sod
Construction works on the 88-kilometre Hohoe-Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu stretch of the Eastern Corridor road have commenced.
The project forms part of Phase One of the $2-billion Government of Ghana/Sinohydro Master Project Agreement.
Yesterday, the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, cut the sod at Jasikan in the Oti Region for the project to begin.
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The road has a long and painful history of neglect.
The Vice-President was accompanied to the sod-cutting ceremony by the Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Kwesi Amoako-Atta, and the traditional rulers of the Oti Region.
Critical roads
Dr Bawumia said of all the critical roads listed in the 2020 Budget, the Hohoe-Jasikan and the Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu roads were the only ones to have commenced.
He said contractors on those projects mobilised to site two weeks before the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, presented the 2020 Budget Statement to Parliament.
He also noted that at the time those projects were initiated, both roads were in the Volta Region.
The Eastern Corridor Road project, allotted as N2 of the National Road Network, begins from the Tema Motorway through to the Volta, Oti, Northern, North East and Upper East regions to neighbouring Burkina Faso.
Assurance
Dr Bawumia assured residents of the Oti Region that the government would ensure that the project was completed on schedule, adding that the region would receive its fair share of development projects.
He reiterated the government's plan to fix critical roads in the country.
He said sod-cutting ceremonies would be performed for Cape Coast inner-city roads and Nyinahini area roads this week under the Infrastructure for Bauxite facility.
The rest of the approved lots were expected to be undertaken soon, he said.
Other projects
Vice-President Bawumia indicated that many other projects were to be undertaken by the government in the Oti Region.
“The commitment of the government to the development of the trunk road network is evidenced by the many road and bridge development projects, as well as the numerous road maintenance projects that are ongoing all over the country and to continue in the Year of Roads in 2020.
“Under the Critical Roads Programme for highway construction, the Oti Region will have Dambai town roads, the Nkonya-Wurapong-Kwamikrom road and the Jasikan-Worawora road,” he stated.
"The government is on course to fix all critical road projects in a holistic approach, so that every part of the country has durable roads,” he added.
Commitment
Mr Amoako-Atta assured the people of the government’s commitment to make significant progress in road infrastructure development, with the Oti Region featuring prominently.
He also assured the people of the Oti Region, particularly the youth, of the government’s resolve to ensure that the local content clauses in the agreement with Sinohydro were strictly adhered to in order to create jobs and provide incomes for the indigenes.
He said the project would provide many jobs for contractors, artisans, cooks and others with varied professional skills.
Appreciation
On behalf of the chiefs and the people of the Oti Region, Nana Aburam Akpandza V, the Paramount Chief of the Buem Traditional Area, who chaired the ceremony, expressed satisfaction at the show of concern by the government towards the development of the roads.
Present were the Oti Regional Minister, Mr Kwesi Owusu Yeboah; the President of Powerchina West Africa and Central Africa of which Sinohydro is a subsidiary, Mr Zhang Nianmu; representatives of the Embassy of China, the MP for Krachi East and Deputy Minister for Sanitation, Michael Yao Jato, and dozens of chiefs from the Oti Region.