Teshie Link Road to Be Completed In August 2020- Roads and Highways Minister
11-11-2019Roads and Highways Minister Kwesi Amoako Atta on Friday told Parliament the Teshie Link dual carriageway road located in the Ledzokuku Municipality linking the Accra-Tema Coastal and Spintex roads has been awarded to a new contractor, Messrs G.S. International Developers GH Limited and will be completed by August next year. He bemoaned the deplorable state of the road which also connects the Spintex Road to the Accra-Tema Beach road that has been a subject of grave concern to many residents of the area and the public but on which work had stalled since 2016 while residents and commuters alike have had cause to complain, decrying the potholes which keep increasing in size and depth by the day. The Minister admitted that this 7.5 kilometre road is one of the critical roads in the constituency as it is the only alternative route to residential areas around the Manet Estate off the Spintex Road and leads to a referral hospital, the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA) Hospital and also serves schools and residential premises such as Manet Estate and other communities that connect to the Link such as Tsui-bleo, Tesshie-Nungua and GREDA Estates. The Roads and Highways Minister disclosed these when he appeared in the House to answer a question that stood in the name of Biakoye MP Kwadwo Nyanpon Aboagye who asked the Minister when the Teshie Link from the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Centre to Spintex Road will be completed. Hon. Amoako Atta stated that Messrs Malin Investment Limited which won the bid for the construction of the road in June 2015 scheduled for completion in July 2017 suspended work due to undue delay in paying for work done but did not show any progress after some payments were made and therefore resulted in government’s termination of the contract. According to the Minister, the Ministry then packaged the outstanding works and awarded the contract to Messrs Haijag Construction (WA) Limited in November 2018 but terminated it since no progress was achieved and subsequently accepted a commercial offer from Messrs DSR Holdings Inc. of Dubai, UAE to source for funds from the Development Bank of Belarus and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID). He lamented that the processes leading to acquiring funding facility by Messrs DSR Holdings Inc. were however cumbersome and was going to delay the continuation of the project hence the Ministry knowing the importance it attaches to this particular project decided to continue the work with funding from its budgetary allocation from the Consolidated Fund and therefore engaged Messrs G.S. International Developers GH Limited in August 2019 to complete the outstanding works. The Roads and Highways Minister assured the House that the government was more committed to completing work on that road, indicating that the government is willing to complete all roads in the country but since there are not enough resources to enable government to touch all roads at the same time it is compelled to prioritise some of the critical roads in the country. Hon. Amoako-Atta promised the lawmakers that government will provide enough funds to enable the completion of work to finish within the given time frame and that road construction equipment, including road rollers and caterpillars, had already been assembled on the stretch which is projected at thirty per cent physical completion and that part of it had already been tarred. It will be recalled that the Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in a recent press briefing, stated that the government, in partnership with Messrs DSR Holdings Inc, a company based in Dubai, had selected a contractor to complete works on the Teshie link. That followed an offer the company from the United Arab Emirates made to the Ministry of Roads and Highways to fund that road and other roads. He said the company had indicated it would source for funds from the Development Bank of Belarus and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID).
