Accra, Nov. 18, GNA - Dr Richard Anane, Minister of Roads and Transport, on Tuesday said work on the Mehame-Dadiesoaba Feeder road in the Brong Ahafo Region would be completed by May 2004.

He said the first four kilometre of the 11.2 kilometre road was awarded to Messers Kasap Limited for tarring in August 1999 and was completed by August 2000.

The Minister said due to non-performance by the contractor, the contract was terminated in April 2002.

Dr Anane was speaking in Parliament when Mrs Cecilia Gyan Amoah, NPP-Asutifu South, asked the Minister when work on the road would resume. He said due to the non-performance of the first contractor, "the entire road was consequently re-packaged and re-awarded to Messers New Bridge Limited for completion in 12 months. The award was made in December 2002 for commencement in March 2003."

He said the contract, however, commenced on May 23, this year due to the late submission of performance guarantee by the Contractor. "The commencement of the contract, however, coincided with the major rainy season. The work was, therefore, programmed to start slowly for the pace to be increased during the dry season.

"At the moment, the contractor has completed 1.4 kilometre of the trapezoidal stone lined drain, 6.5 kilometres of shaping and excavation of earth drains, which is about 24 per cent of the works." The Minister of Roads said the Ministry's attention had been drawn to the problem of flow of traffic sometimes created by River Tano, which flows over the road when in floods.

"This is because the capacity of the existing 30 metres span bridge is inadequate to carry the flow and requires replacement with a bigger one." "The replacement of this bridge does not form part of the current road contract. It would, however, be considered in one of our four bridge development programmes when funds are secured, " the Minister said.

Mrs Amoah, in a related development, asked what provision the Ministry was making towards the stocking of Bailey bridge components for use during emergencies.

Dr Anane said the present stock of Bailey bridge components was exhausted and that, currently, the Ministry "is holding discussions with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to secure a facility of two million dollars for the procurement of Bailey bridge components."

He said Bailey bridges were temporary steel bridges used in emergency situations largely due to the ease and speed of construction and installation.

"Over the years, the Ministry has been procuring Bailey bridge components from grants provided by the UK Overseas Development Agency, now the Department For International Development (DFID) and Exim Credit Guarantee Department facility in the United Kingdom. "The last of these procurements was made in 1989, " the Minister, said. Dr Anane said the Bailey bridges when procured were to be used by agencies and departments under the Ministry including the Ghana Highways Authority, the Department of Feeder Roads and the 48 Engineers' Regiment of the Ghana Army.

"In addition the Ministry is negotiating with the following development partners to procure steel bridges required under our agencies and departments normal operations."

Dr Anane said DFID was providing 65 of these steel bridges, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was giving 18, Agence Francaise de Developpment, six and the Dutch Government 90 steel bridges, which when procured were to be used to span selected rivers and streams all over the country.

"Plans are also far advanced to procure additional 20 bridges from JICA and 36 from Spain. The bridges when procured and installed will help improve the transportation bottlenecks, especially in food and cash crop producing areas," the Minster said.

Mr Benjamin Kuffuor, NPP-Asunafo, asked about what happens to old Bailey bridges, once concrete bridges were built. The Minister said although such bridges were supposed to be temporary, almost all the Bailey bridges installed were still in place.

Mr Bernard Achidago, NDC-Binduri, asked the Minister which rivers had been selected for spanning with Bailey and steel bridges. The Minister said over 200 bridges would be constructed and he needed notice to make the names available.

Mrs Agnes Sonful, NPP-Amenfi West, asked what plans the Ministry had for repairing broken down bridges in the country, but the Minister said they were now taking inventory of defective bridges.

Four papers were laid before Parliament at the commencement of public business. They were "The Report of the Finance Committee on the Loan Agreement between the Government of Ghana and the Italian Republic"

involving 10 million Euros for the financing of the Ghana Private Sector Development Funds and the setting up of the Project Management Unit and "The Report of the Loan Agreement between the Government of Ghana and the African Development Fund" for an amount of 34.6 million units of accounts for the Poverty Reduction Support Programme.

The others were "The Report of the Finance Committee on the Sale and Purchase Agreement between the Government of Ghana and DAF Bus International B.V. of the Netherlands" for an amount of 14.7 million Euros for the supply of one hundred intra-city buses for the Metro Mass Transit Limited and "The Report of the Joint Committee on Roads and Transport and Finance on Loan Agreement between the Government of Ghana and OPEC Fund" for an amount of 6.7 million dollars for the Anyinam-Konongo section of the Anyinam-Kumasi road rehabilitation project.