Kasoa Interchange To Be Opened To Traffic by the end of November

the President John Dramani Mahama has said the Kasoa interchange would be opened to vehicular and pedestrian traffic before the the beginning of December.

Speaking at a mini rally at Mamaobi on Sunday, the President said the opening was necessary to reduce congestion and allow traffic to flow freely at the Interchange and its environs.
The president, who is expected to commission the Circle Interchange on Monday, was addressing party supporters said there are a lot of projects the Government of the NDC will commission before the beginning of the next month.

“After the commissioning of the Circle interchange tomorrow, the Kasaoa interchange will also be next to be opened to traffic before the beginning of next months” he said.
“There are many other projects that we are going to commission to ensure we deliver the better life for Ghanaians.”

The Kasoa interchange project is one of the main 2012 campaign promises of the NDC, which is captured on page 53 of the party’s manifesto, aimed at improving accessibility to major centres of population, production and tourism in the Central Region.
The project, approved by Parliament in October last year, comprises the construction of 200 metres of Interchange Bridge, a new roundabout, drainage and public lighting, the 33-kilometre Amasaman-Kasoa road and the 20 kilometres of roads in the Ga South municipality and Kasoa.
However, the New Patriotic Party’s flag bearer for the 2016 elections, Nana Akufo-Addo, later alleged that the 172 million dollar contract had been inflated, and challenged President Mahama to check the figures again.
Nana Akufo-Addo said he was convinced the estimated cost of $172m for the project had been over-bloated and could have been completed at half the cost.
He alleged that the project is one of 21 projects being undertaken by the Mahama administration and which costs have raised several eyebrows.
“Check the Kasoa figures; check them again” Akufo- Addo threw the challenge to Mahama while addressing the second Aliu Mahama memorial lecture in December 2014, adding even if an independent open tender would be invited, the president should do it and see if the country can’t save half of what had been estimated.

He said, while the President has the power to ignore his challenge, it will be an “unprecedented show of strength” and not weakness if he should take him up on the challenge, he said, adding “He [Mahama] has nothing to lose. Only then will the President demonstrate to all, a clear commitment to fighting corruption.

However, Presidents Mahama, in response, branded critics of the cost of the project as “political quantity surveyors.”
“If you have a new breed of political quantity surveyors who are not civil engineers but can stand and look at something and say it is too expensive, then there is a problem,” he said.
The project has been divided into three phases. In all a new 33 kilometer Kasoa-Obom road will be constructed. There will be an interchange constructed at the Kasoa Junction. The project also includes a two 12-classroom blocks, 12-unit class room blocks, one polyclinic with all accessories, mechanized bore-holes, and 13 local roads would be constructed, as well as a walk-over at Iron City.
The project. which is financed by a Brazilian loan facility ,would also have two flyovers at the Galiea and CP areas in the Ga South District of the Greater Accra Region.

The 95 kilometre road project is to ease the perennial traffic on the Kasoa-Winneba road, which at its peak time records five kilometres per hour traffic movement, particularly at the weekends.

By: Fiifi Abdul Malik @fiifialmaestro on twitter