Job 600 now to be completed by February 2013
Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, on Wednesday said works on the office complex to house members of parliament for their official duties would be completed by the end of February 2013.
The office complex (Job 600), which was scheduled to have been completed by the end of November 2012, was postponed due to the creation of the 45 new constituencies which called for the expansion of the project to contain the addition.
Briefing the press during a tour of some of the housing projects being undertaken by the ministry, Mr E.T. Mensah said the bulk of the work on the building, which has 13 floors, had been completed and it was left mainly with painting, interior finishing and decorations.
He said the building, being handled by China State Construction, would have offices, changing rooms, restaurants, a secretariat and a library.
Mr Ekow Bentsil–Entsill, Resident Engineer, said the building, containing 275 offices, would be equipped with teleconferencing facilities, a clinic, a banking hall, a church and a mosque.
“We have also designed 10 rooms purposely for the Parliamentary Select Committee activities and other leadership of parliament,” he added.
He said the building would be equipped with all the needed security facilities and that National Security had started using it for its activities because it was one of the tallest buildings in the country.
Mr Mensah also visited the Sakumono Affordable Housing Project which was meant to provide 168 apartments for officials of the Bureau of National Investigation at a cost of $14.1 million.
He said the project, which started six months ago, was being undertaken by Amandi Constructions, an Israeli company, and started after the failure of the STX deal.
Mr Hagai Raz, Managing Director, Amandi Constructions, said so far 72 apartments meant for the junior staff had been completed adding that the company would commence with the construction of the additional 96 apartments for the senior staff.
The junior staff would have a two-bedroom apartment while that for the senior staff would be three bedrooms, he said.
The minister also visited the Borteyman Affordable Housing Project which was started under the Kuffour Administration to acquaint himself with progress of work.
The project, which was abandoned after the previous government left power, was restarted two years ago after a long legal tussle with some 300 contractors who worked on it.
He cited the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ghana Registered Nurses Association and members of the Civil Service and Local Government Association of Ghana as some of the organisations which had requested for units for their staff.
So far five out the 72 housing units had been completed and had been allocated to officials of the State Housing Corporation.
Source: GNA