Sethi Reality Estate, a subsidiary of Sethi Group, on Friday commissioned a bridge it constructed over a stream at the affordable housing unit area in Kpone.

The bridge will link Dawhenya, Tema Community 25 to Tema through the Sethi Reality property, Nyame Dua apartments, at the affordable housing area to the landfill site road.

Mr Godwin Adjei Gyemfi, Chief Executive Officer of Sethi Reality, said through a Public, Private Partnership with the Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Assembly (MMKA), constructed the bridge and the link road at a cost of GHS 5.7million.

Mr Gyemfi added that it had been estimated that the bridge and the link road would ease traffic congestion on the Tema-Aflao road to Dawhenya by 50 per cent as well as give easy access to the Kpone affordable housing.

He noted that apart from his outfit's vision to reduce the housing deficit, it was also improving the quality of life for the local community by commencing the construction of a supermarket, a bus stop and a police post in the area to serve residents.

Mr Solomon Tettey Appiah, Kpone Municipal Chief Executive, explained that whereas the company constructed the bridge, the Assembly created the access link, gravelled the road and was currently dredging the stream.

Mr Appiah indicated that the stream, Akweley and Akuorkor, often overflowed its banks leading to flooding of nearby houses and farms, a situation he said would be curbed after the dredging.

He further said the Assembly was in talks with the Electricity Company of Ghana to provide street lighting on the stretch to enhance security for both drivers and pedestrians in the night.

He noted that MMKA would collaborate with the Ministry of Roads and Highways to assess the state of major roads in the Municipality and give them a facelift to ease traffic and make them motorable.

Madam Freda Prempeh, Deputy Minister of Works and Housing, commended Sethi Reality for taking up the challenge to provide the bridge to link Kpone to Dawhenya and its environs.

Madam Prempeh also appreciated them for helping to reduce the country's over 1.7 million housing units deficit with the provision of their 240 units apartments.

She appealed to the private sector to participate more actively to provide viable and sustainable solutions to the nation's housing deficit by adopting new ideas and approaches to construct more affordable housing units.

She announced that in future all homes would need an energy certificate as a measure to make sure that both new and existing buildings were energy efficient.

The Deputy Minister also urged Ghanaians to take advantage of mortgage facilities from banks with low-interest rates to enable them purchase houses of their own.

Nii Tetteh Otu II, Paramount Chief of Kpone, called on developers to consider building high rise buildings to help preserve the farmlands as the practice of using arable lands to build sprawling housing estates would affect the country's food production in future.