Government can’t construct 20 interchanges in four years – Minority
The Minority Caucus in Parliament says government cannot construct 20 interchanges in four years.
Mr Governs Kwame Agbodza, Ranking Member on the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament, questioned the source of funding for such projects after government failed to complete a single job under the Sinohydro roads projects and abandoned cocoa roads.
At a presser in Parliament, he urged the Government to complete existing road projects rather than repackage them with new timelines.
Mr Agbodza said the National Democratic Congress (NDC), when in government, did better with road construction, and when out of government, had fully backed road projects by supporting about 95 per cent of bills on such projects.
The Minority had raised red flags over the Sino Hydro deal, he said, adding: “We are not happy to say that on many occasions, when we query them and they fail to listen, we all get into trouble.”
“The Sino Hydro is one good example.”
The Minority’s position is in reaction to the Roads and Highways Minister, Mr Kwasi Amoako-Atta’s announcement that 20 interchanges had been earmarked for construction across the country to ease the traffic situation.
The Minister, addressing the media, had said 6,000km out of 11,000km of roads were to be completed under government’s second year of roads programme.
However, Mr Agbodza said the quantum of resources at the disposal of government should have seen even more road projects across the country but indications were that government could not construct 20 new interchanges as promised.
The NDC Minority Caucus threatened to oppose any increment in road tolls by government.
“We agree with government that we must get more resources for the Road Ministry to improve our roads. We’ll support government in that endeavour but we shall not support it to increase road tolls unless it is able to cap road fund, give all that money to the Road Ministry and then we can discuss the gap that will be left,” Mr Agbodza said.
“Until that time, they cannot get the support from our side of the House to increase road tolls.”
“Today, we are going to be talking about projects the Minister says were done in their first term and those that will be done in this second term. He indicated that there are about some 11,000 km of road projects and 6,000km would be done between now and 2024.”
“These are woefully inadequate as more could be done based on the quantum of resources available to the Government.”
Source: GNA