Vice President Aliu Mahama on Monday cut the sod for rehabilitation work to begin on the Inchaban-Sekondi Road and said the government would ensure that roads in the twin-city were upgraded to the levels that would boost trade and support economic activities in the fishing harbour and its environs.

The construction project, being funded by Agence Francaise de Developpement at 17 million euros, would also cover the Adiembra-Effia Nkwanta Road and the Africana Roundabout-Atlantic-Takoradi Habour roads, considered as strategic to the region’s road network.

At a colourful durbar at Sekondi, attended by government officials, Chiefs, Members of Parliament and a cross-section of residents of Sekondi, Vice President Mahama said the project was an indication of the government’s commitment to improve the quality of life of Ghanaians through the provision of sound economic and social infrastructure.

“It is also an affirmation of our commitment to bring about the realization of the Golden Age of Business by facilitating and promoting business ventures in our towns and cities”, he said.

Vice President Mahama noted that the rehabilitation and reconstruction of these 12 kilometre strategic roads would improve traffic movements, cut down the cost of doing business and give a facelift to the depressed areas along the routes.

He described Sekondi-Takoradi as a ‘huge basket of economic potentials’, which could not be fully tapped for national socio-economic growth if good road network were not developed.

“The West where the best comes from deserves the best and the provision of these facilities is a strong manifestation of our Government’s commitment to meet its part of the social contract with the good people of the Western Region”, he said.

Vice President Mahama expressed the government’s appreciation to the French Government for its support and expressed the hope that more of such assistance would be provided for the development of the infrastructure sector.

He tasked the contractors, Sonitra to ensure that the projects were executed within the contract period of 18 months, adding ; “we expect nothing less than quality work which will give us value for money”.

He further appealed to Sonitra, the consultants, Messrs Bergman Ingero/ABP Consult to ensure that the work were executed to design specifications.

Giving technical details about the project, Dr. Richard Anane, Minister for Roads and Transport, said the Adiembra road project would involve the reconstruction of a 4.6 kilometre of a bitumen-surfaced road and the replacement of the existing road over the Rail Bridge with a new structure, with a span of about 20 metres.

Dr. Anane said the Inchaban section would also involve the reconstruction of six kilometre poor road and a construction of a new access and surface parking area to the fish market.

The Africana (Habour) Road, which would be reconstructed, has a total length of 1.4 kilometers and runs from the centre of Takoradi to the Takoradi Habour, the oldest in the country.

Dr. Anane gave the assurance that the Ministry would ensure that adequate environmental, safety and traffic management measures were put in place to minimize the hardships the public would endure during the construction phase of the project.

He announced that Sekondi-Takoradi would be the next to benefit from the government’s mass transportation initiative, saying the pilot phase would start by April 7.

The Member of Parliament for Sekondi, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, who is also the Minister for Parliamentary affairs, stressed that the administration of the New Patriotic Party would not make vain promises and thanked President John Agyekum Kufour for honouring his promises to rehabilitate the road.

He said among other things that the start of the project had proved sceptics wrong and ended allegations by certain people that the government had diverted funds for the project.