Communities along the 1,000-kilometre Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Road have been urged to provide enough space for the effective implemenation of the project, set to commence in 2024.

The plan is part of the African Union’s linking structures for developing trade and transportation on the Continent, and would provide six-lane expressway, which would cost more than 16 billion dollars.

A total of 576 of the 1,028km proposed road traverses Ghana, and would argument existing transportation infrastructure in what is considered West Africa’s most vibrant corridors.

Members of the ECOWAS committed to the project under a treaty in Abuja in 2013, and a Ministerial Steering Committee of the five countries along the line was established, and which has been overseeing the formation of national implementation.

The five countries along the line are Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria.

Mrs Rita Sarfoh, the Director of Policy Planning and Budgeting, Ministry of Roads and Highways, in charge of the project direction in Ghana, told stakeholders in the Volta Region that Ghana must ensure the provision of the right of way through hundreds of communities and expansive terrain.

Chairing a stakeholder engagement with host communities in the region, she said the feasibility studies component, spread across four phases, was nearing conclusion, and that an economically viable route that minimised environmental and cultural impacts had been identified.

A detailed technical design study has been completed and financing and execution strategies are expected to be completed by September 2023, to be followed by other components including a road safety audit, trade and transport facilitations, and spatial developments.

Mrs Sarfo said the trade and transport facilitation component would review existing international protocols, especially in line with recently promoted Africa Inter Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.

An Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Management Authority would be established to manage the infrastructure.

“The main achievement is to reorganise transportation as a catalyst for the development of ECOWAS,” she said.

“Political leaders are very committed. Local stakeholders are also very interested. Everybody is looking forward to the road. It will have no interruptions, no speed ramps and would play a major role in trade and transport facilitation.”

“It is a project that when well done, would not be about the road, but also about improving the entire economies of the various countries.”

Mr Collins Donkor, Deputy Chief Executive – Development, at the Roads Ministry, said encroachments on spaces for road projects remained a major problem and tasked the stakeholders to help address the challenge.

He cited how some entities schemed to make profit from state land acquisition by developing marked spaces and said such could affect the realisation of the Corridor, and asked local government authorities, traditional leaders and the public to cooperate to ensure its success.

Nana Pomaa Karikari, a member of the Ghana Implementation Unit in charge of the project’s alignment, said a route of mainly greenfield had been selected, which would begin at the Elubo Border.

The highway would bypass Accra at about 15km east of Winneba, and would continue across the Akuapim range to Miotso and then through the Volta Region to end its Ghana traverse at the Akanu Joint Border Post in the Ketu North Municipality.

A mountain tunnel, to be the first in the country, has been proposed at the Akuapim range, and bridges would be constructed across water bodies on the line.

The scope of the access control infrastructure called for interchanges at all existing roads and communities, and would require more than the present 100 meter right of way.

She called on all to support the Government’s compulsory acquisition regime to help make the project a reality.

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