General News of Friday, 17 March 2023
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
Minority Chief Whip Kwame Governs Agbodza has revealed the one and only interchange the Akufo-Addo government has started and completed since they assumed office.
According to him, the Tamale interchange is the only interchange that can be linked with the Akufo-Addo-led government since they assumed office in 2017.
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, March 16, 2023, during a debate on the president's State of the Nation's Address (SoNA), Kwame Governs Agbodza said;
"Mr Speaker, think of it that the whole Appropriations Bill in 20i6 was just about 50 billion. The volume of debt you are owing the road sector alone is equal to the entire Appropriations Bill in 2016. No wonder we accounted for 120 billion in debt, and you got 600 billion; you have nothing to show for it. The only interchange currently attributed to the NPP is the Tamale interchange. You have actually no record of any interchange started and completed," he said.
On March 29, 2022, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo commissioned the first-ever Tamale Interchange Project under the Sinohydro deal.
The Northern Region is benefiting from the $2 billion-dollar loan and a grant from the Chinese government meant to develop the country, which was used to construct the interchange in the ancient town of Tamale.
The project is one of the promises of the Akufo-Addo-led government under the Master Project Support Agreement (MPSA) between the Government of Ghana (GOG) and the $2 billion Sinohydro Corporation Company of China.
The Tamale interchange is about one kilometre long and links the Kumasi road through the Point 7 road, the Central Taxi Rank, and the Central Market intersection with the Melcom Road and Bolgatanga Road.
Under the completed project, the existing road between the Central Mosque and the Taxi Rank, which used to be a two-lane 6.5-metre road upgraded to a two-lane 14m interchange on the second tier with a slip road of five metres on the ground level, thereby significantly improving the capacity of the road.
The roundabout at the Central Mosque had a roadway width of six metres and a diameter of 22 metres, and it had been designed to the ministry's standards.