Govt adopts new model to finance road construction
The Ministry of Roads and Highways has started using a new model, the public-private partnership (PPP), for the financing, construction and management of roads.
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Alhaji Amin Amidu Sulemani, the Minister of Roads and Highways, who announced this in Accra yesterday, said already a consultant had been engaged to undertake a feasibility study on the dualisation of some roads to be financed by the PPP model.
Taking his turn at the meet-the-press series in Accra, Alhaji Sulemani said the Accra-Takoradi road, the Accra-Tema Motorway, the Accra-Kumasi dualisation and the Western corridor roads Phase l (Elubo-Sunyani) were among some of the projects being considered under the PPP model.
He said the PPP contract for the financing, designing and construction of an overpass on the Motorway at the Teshie link was currently ongoing.
Preliminary designs have already been completed, while detailed design of works is in progress.
The minister said when the project, estimated at $15 million, was completed, residents and motorists would be able to cross over the Motorway without going through the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange.
Actual construction of the overpass is expected to commence in 2014 and completed in 24 months.
“Road transportation remains one of the strategic sectors of Ghana’s economy. It forms an important part of the social safety net facilitating the distribution of wealth through trade and employment opportunities in both urban and rural communities. It also facilitates the movement of people, goods and services in all sectors of the economy, including tourism, mining, health, trade, education and agriculture,” he said.
Alhaji Sulemani said part of the China Development Bank’s $3 billion loan would be used for the construction of various roads.
As much as $112.74 million had been earmarked for the oil enclave roads in the Western Region, he said, adding that $234 million was being committed to the completion of the La Beach road (Accra-Tema) project and the Accra Intelligent Management Traffic System.
The La Beach road represents a critical corridor that links Accra to Tema. Currently, the road has reached its limit in terms of traffic and pavement capacity.
Maintenance of Roads
Alhaji Sulemani said by the end of August this year routine maintenance had been undertaken on 9,522km of the trunk network, 3,900km on the feeder road network, while 945km of grading works and pothole patching had been done on the urban road network.
He said under the same policy, the ministry was vigorously implementing a programme, with the assistance of the European Commission, to regulate and control overloading and improve and expand transport sector indicators and database for policy formulation and better management of investment in the sector.
Challenges
In spite of what had been achieved, the minister named challenges facing the sector to include the inability to raise enough funds from other sources to support road maintenance programmes, long delays in honouring payments to contractors and the low delivery capacity of local and some foreign contractors, a development that affected the early completion of road contracts.
On the outlook for 2014, Alhaji Sulemani said the main focus would be on completing the large portfolio of ongoing projects being funded from the Consolidated Fund, with the support of development partners.
Daily Graphic/Ghana