The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah has revealed that the government will terminate some road contracts in the Ashanti region due to delays.
He said the government is still committed to finishing major road projects linking farming communities to the Regional capital, Kumasi.
According to Simon Osei-Mensah, some of the roads that have remained undone were given to contractors but they have failed to complete on schedule. He said there are plans to terminate the contracts and re-award them to the contractors that finished their projects on schedule.
“Some of the roads were awarded to three contractors. Unfortunately, the contractors at the beginning and the end have completed their projects and those within the middle parts have not completed. One of them [the roads] is about eight kilometres and the other is about 12 kilometres which we think must be terminated and re-awarded, possibly to the contractor who constructed the other roads within the same vicinity.
Simon Osei-Mensah made the comments while inspecting the upgraded 7 km Juaso-Nkwanta-Obogu and the 10km Banka-Otuokwai-Kotoben. He said the road linking Asante South Municipal to North Birim in the Eastern Region would be considered. The Minister noted that the road is very important because it is linking the two regions.
“Again, there are some critical routes we need to also have a look at, and that is between Obogu and Kumeso, which is about 8.5 kilometres. That road is very critical because it links Asante South Municipal Assembly to the Eastern region, that is Birim North and this is a very critical road.”