YEJI TOWN ROADS TO BE TARRED (PAGE 35, NOV 8, 2010)

THE Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Joe Gidisu, has cut the sod for the tarring of two kilometres of roads in Yeji town and the construction of 500 metres of drains along the road.
The projects, which are aimed at giving Yeji a facelift and to help ease the perennial flooding, are expected to be completed by September next year.
The projects, which are being financed with a Japanese grant of GH¢775, 685,64, are being executed by Kehentson Company Limited.
Addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Yeji after cutting the sod for the commencement of the projects, Mr Gidisu said the government had decided to channel a greater part of a $13.2 billion roll-on-credit facility it secured from the Chinese government, during the recent visit by President John Evans Atta Mills to that country, to improve the road sector of the economy.
He stated that some roads in the Brong Ahafo Region would receive attention under the Chinese facility, notably the Atebubu-Kwame-Danso-Kajeji road to the banks of the Volta Lake in the Sene District, which has been on the drawing board for about a decade.
He said the government’s decision to use a greater portion of the facility for the road sector, was to take off some of the huge financial burden on the government’s funding for the sector.
Mr Gidisu added that much attention would be paid to feeder roads and other link roads in the country under the facility, saying that the road sector was the pivot for the socio-economic transformation of the country.
He assured Ghanaians that the road infrastructure of the country would see massive transformation in 2011 under President Mills’s administration.
The minister said since Prof. Mills took over power, his government had paid more than GH¢300 million to road contractors in the country while there were still some arrears to pay.
In response to an appeal by the Omanhene of Yeji Traditional Area, Pemanpem Yaw Kagbrese V, and the Pru District Chief Executive, Mr Masawud Mohammed, that the government should improve the drainage system of Yeji town to ease the perennial flooding , Mr Gidisu said those concerns would be taken on board.
He expressed the hope that when the project was completed, it would bring improvements in the living conditions of the people.
Mr Gidisu also called on the contractor executing the project to construct the roads to the agreed specifications so that it would last longer.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, said the government was committed to the improvement of the road network in the country, giving an assurance that every community would get its fair share of development projects.
Mr Mohammed, the Pru DCE, appealed to the minister to consider improving other roads in the area such as the Prang-Abease-Kintampo and Yeji-Vutudeke roads, since they lad to food-growing communities in the district.
Nana Kagbrese, who is also the Vice-President of the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs, expressed his appreciation to the government for the project.
He appealed for additional stretch of the town roads, including the one leading to the District Hospital.