Market Circle redevelopment to be completed in 30 months- President Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo last Wednesday cut the sod for the commencement of the redevelopment of the Takoradi Central Market, popularly called Market Circle.
The project will cost €48 million and is being financed by an export credit from the Deutsche Bank S.p.A Italy, with export credit guarantee support from SACE, the Italian export guarantee agency.
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It would be undertaken by Messrs Contracta Costruzioni Italia SLR and would be completed within 30 calendar months, the President said.
The redeveloped market will comprise 2,408 stores, 33 restaurants and food courts, bulk breaking areas, a visitors’ car park, union offices, a police station, a fire station, a post office, a clinic, administrative offices, a waste separation dock and changing rooms for staff.
Sod cutting
Performing the traditional ceremony to indicate commencement of the project, the President declared: “Today, I am here to cut the sod for the construction and redevelopment of the Takoradi Market, popularly called Market Circle. I am particularly happy that this project, which is dear to my heart, is going to commence under the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.”
He said over the past three years and eight months, the government had rolled out policies and interventions that had affected the lives and livelihoods of all Ghanaians in all parts of the country.
“We have expanded infrastructural development in all regions of the country, and the Western Region will attest to the following: the construction of the Western Corridor railway line, the construction of the Essiama-Nkroful road, the expansion and modernisation of the Takoradi Harbour, the construction and asphalting of inner-city roads in Sekondi-Takoradi and Tarkwa and the expansion of infrastructure in senior high schools across the region,” he said.
Project benefits
He added that the redevelopment of the market and its associated infrastructure would address the underlying cause of fire outbreaks at the market through appropriate specifications, including providing fire detection and combatting systems.
He said it would also upgrade the drainage system to alleviate flooding and insanitary conditions, improve social infrastructure such as toilets, covered drainage networks and health post and improve waste collection and disposal.
Further, the President indicated that the project, once completed, would reduce traffic congestion in the surrounding areas of the market by providing on-site bulk breaking facilities and taking such activities off the main Market Circle Road.
He said the project would also increase trading due to the introduction of a visitors’ parking lot within the Market Circle, increase the number of rentable shops in the city and reduce the number of vehicular and human points of conflict and congestion around the central business district of the metropolis.
According to President Akufo-Addo, it would “create between 400 and 500 direct jobs and between 1,000 and 2,500 indirect jobs, reorganise all the traders in the market and formalise the informal economy of the central market and improve safety and security”.
He thus urged the contractor to complete the project on time and on budget, and appealed to the traders and the shoppers currently in the central market to provide a congenial working atmosphere for the contractor to enable him to deliver the project on time.