Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei-Mensah has given yet another assurance that physical work on the Suame Interchange will start by August this year, as he rejects claims the project has been abandoned.
President Akufo-Addo broke grounds for the construction of the project in October last year but many, including Regional Executives of the governing NPP, have questioned why the project is yet to commence. Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP Bernard Antwi Boasiako at a news conference said the electoral fortunes of the governing party’s stronghold are heavily dependent on the completion of the Suame Interchange.
Speaking to journalists, during a working visit to the contractor on site Tuesday (June 6), Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei-Mensah appealed to the people of the region to bear with the government indicating that some challenges including the IMF negotiations affected the commencement of the project.
He also called for calm among the people of Suame even though he admits the project may not be completed within 36 months.
“I want to reiterate this because of the way we do our politics that the project will not be completed by December 2024 because the project is to be completed within 36 months and even if it had started in October 2022, we still wouldn’t have completed by December 2024, so I just want to make it clear that the project cannot be completed by December 2024”.
The Suame Interchange will be the second four-tier interchange project in the country which is expected to ease traffic in parts of the Greater Kumasi areas. The construction firm, Rango Construction Mohammed indicates that the redesigning works are expected to be completed within two months for the project to commence. Its project manager Mohammed Omar Fazzani also indicated that they are 85% complete with the campsite to be used for the project.
“We are still in the design stage, we have already submitted the preliminary design and received some comments from the consultant and the owner so I think that within the next month or one and a half, we will finish with all the design stage and go to the ground to start, but we are ahead of the design schedule, and we hope we will finish as soon as possible.”
The Regional Director of Urban Road Ing. Francis Gambrah also said the preliminary designs have also been submitted for a review “so that is where we are it’s not that nothing is being done but the design process is ongoing, and the physical work is expected to begin in August, and it is even likely that it may begin in July.”
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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