WORK ON 4 ROADS BEGIN...(BACK PAGE, MAY 7, 2010)

WORK has commenced on 110.5 kilometres stretch of roads in four districts of the Northern Region.
The roads, which are being constructed and rehabilitated under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), are to open up farming communities in the Gushiegu, Savelugu-Nanton, Tolon-Kumbungu and Karaga districts and link them to marketing centres by June, 2011.
The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) is facilitating the project to ensure increased access to social services and improvement in farming activities in the districts.
The projects, estimated at $20.3 million, are being financed under the MCA programme and are expected to be completed within 20 months. The contractors are Jiangxi Zhong Mei and Zhong Hai, both Chinese construction firms, with Messrs Kocks Consult as the consultant and MiDA as the implementing agency.
Speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony at Zhoggu in the Savelugu-Nanton District, the Chief Executive Officer of MiDA, Mr Martin Eson-Benjamin, stated that the projects involved gravelling and bitumen surfacing of the roads and the construction and rehabilitation of 236 new and existing culverts.
They are the Savelugu-Zhoggu, Zhoggu-Tampion junction, Savelugu-Kpendua-Kuldanali, Yong-Sandu-Guno-Kpano, Diare-Kpong-Adayili and Ligba junction-Ligba roads.
The rest are the Pong-Landokura-Guybua road and the Bontanga-Kumbungu turn-off.
“MiDA is confident that the contractors engaged on the projects will complete and deliver excellent road passageways by the middle of 2011 to bring some relief and comfort to residents of the beneficiary districts,” he observed.
Mr Eson-Benjamin said the completion of the projects in 20 months was achievable because the roads had been carefully designed devoid of major resettlement challenges with funds available to meet approved payments under the contract.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Joe Gidisu, assured the beneficiaries of the project that appropriate traffic management plans would be put in place to mitigate the effects of any inconveniences motorists and pedestrians might endure during the execution of the projects.
The Northern Regional Minister, Mr Moses Mabengba, expressed the hope that MiDA would consider the Walewale-Wungu-Bulbia-Kpasenkpe and the Nasia-Janga roads under the project.
He noted that poor road infrastructure inhibited the expansion of agricultural opportunities by limiting linkages to major domestic and international markets.
“That is why the focus of the MCA’s funding under the agricultural project is to undertake improvements on feeder roads in the intervention zones, facilitate access to markets and provide social services to enhance growth in agriculture,” Mr Mabengba stressed.
The Savelugu-Nanton District Chief Executive, Mr Prince Askia Mohammed, appealed to the MiDA to expedite action on the remaining roads designated under its second phase of the road rehabilitation programme.