Kumasi, Aug. 23, GNA - Work on the Sofo-Line Interchange Project is expected to resume in early September, this year, Mr Theodore Quaye, Kumasi Metropolitan Roads Engineer, has said.

This follows the payment of part of the outstanding debt owed the contractors, Messrs China Geo Engineering Corporation. The GH¢99 million project, among other things, involves the construction of 11.0 kilometres of asphalted concrete paved six-dual carriageway road and drainage works, interchange at Sofoline, an underpasses at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) Roundabout and five other selected intersections.

Construction works on it commenced in year 2007 and is being funded by government, but has since December, 2010, stalled because of the lack of funds.

Mr Quaye said the government had now paid GH¢17 million, representing about 70 per cent of the total debt to the contractors. He made this known when the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, inspected the project in Kumasi. The project is about 52 per cent completed.

Mr Quaye said payment of compensation to affected property owners had also been done except for few people who would be paid soon. He denied rumours that the project was being re-designed due to the difficulty with funding and gave the assurance that it would be executed strictly to the original plan.

The Engineer said the construction of the KATH underpass would be tackled in the next phase of the project.

Dr Agyemang-Mensah noted that the project was of strategic importance to economic activities, and asked the contractors to do everything to ensure that the deadline was not missed. He expressed the commitment of the government to settle all outstanding debts to allow for the early completion of the project. The project is expected to be ready by year 2013.