President cuts sod for Kasoa Interchange
President John Dramani Mahama yesterday cut the sod to signal the official commencement of work on the Kasoa Interchange.
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Among the components of the project, which is expected to ease the regular traffic congestion around that part of the Central Region, are a three-tier interchange, two modern bus terminals at Kasoa and Nyanyano and a drainage system.
The rest are the provision of schools from crèche to junior high in four communities and the construction of a modern polyclinic with an emergency centre at Kasoa to replace the existing facility.
Besides, 10 communities will benefit from borehole projects, while roads in the Kasoa community will be rehabilitated.
Additionally a 33-km road linking Kasoa to Amasaman will be constructed, with a new concrete bridge over the River Densu.
President Mahama announced that the road from Kasoa through Bawjiase to Agona Swedru had been awarded on contract for rehabilitation and that work would start soon.
Compensation
He stated that compensation would be negotiated with property owners to ensure that the project did not face any hiccups.
According to him, a substantial part of the project would be completed in October this year.
He thanked the Brazillian government for supporting the project with funds and expressed the hope that the contractors would do a good work
The Brazillian Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Irene Vida Gala, said Brazil was happy to be a true partner in Ghana’s development.
Cost
President Mahama flayed people he described as ‘political quantity surveyors’ for claiming that the cost of the project was bloated.
He said those who were lambasting the government over the cost failed to examine the components of the project.
“And so when you have a new breed of political quantity surveyors who can just stand and look at something and say it’s too expensive, then you have a problem,” he said.
The flag bearer of the New Patroitic Party in the 2016 elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in 2014 claimed that the $172-million project had been inflated and challenged President Mahama to look at the cost again.
But the President indicated that with the several components that the project brought along, “I am sure that if my friend and brother had known this scope of work, he would not have said what he heard.”
President Mahama recalled what he claimed had been said by former President Kufuor “which I will never forget: there are some people who know the cost of everything but do not know the value of anything”.