It appears the much talked-about Eastern Corridor Road will not be completed anytime soon as it is facing another challenge.
Information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that the government of Ghana is owing the contractors working on the Asikuma to Kpeve portion of the road about GH¢42 million.
Government’s inability to pay the Chinese construction firm – GS International – has led to a total halt of work on the road, with over 90% of its staff allegedly laid off.
According to officials of the company, considering the back and forth posture of the government, they feared the country could not pay the debt, therefore, the company’s decision to stop work and desert the site.
The construction firm said it had raised seven certificates in a bid to get its money paid, but that had not been successful.
Work Slowed Down
When the resident engineer, Abu Mohammed, was contacted, he confirmed that the government still had some arrears to pay the contractors, however that did not mean they (contractors) had stopped work entirely.
Mr. Abu, who is also a principal engineer at the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) explained, “They have not stopped completely, but only slowing down and doing minor works.”
He added that the Ministry of Roads and Highways and the GHA were aware because they served him (Mr. Abu) a letter to that effect about two months ago. He said despite the slowdown, the contractors were working on the pavements for now, and that government was making frantic efforts to pay the arrears for work to resume fully.
Potholes on Asphalt
The Asikuma-Kpeve section of the Eastern Corridor Road is a Ghana government-funded project, which spans 45 kilometers. Work on the road began in December, 2011 after several years of unfulfilled promises of its commencement. It was expected to be completed in December 2013, yet the project is far from completion, five years after its commencement.
In June this year, it came to light that the single carriage highway from Asikuma to Have had developed potholes and in some cases, craters.
The development was attributed to a variety of causes, including inconsistent thickness of the asphalt layers.
However, the officials of the Ghana Highways Authority supervised the contractors to rectify the situation.
Indebtedness and Abandonment
A few weeks after this development, the contractors allegedly began laying off some workers until it recently laid off almost all its workers and packed bag and baggage off the road.
So far, work has reached Peki-Todome where one lane of the road has been asphalted with the other side yet to be given the same treatment.
Li Zhendong, project coordinator and Sun Chao Hui, chief engineer for GS International, complained bitterly about the pressure on them and the inconvenience that government’s refusal to pay the arrears had caused them.
From Fred Duodu, Ho (freduoo@gmail.com)