The Minority Spokesperson on roads and Member of Parliament for Adaklu has challenged the NPP government to provide documents to show that they (NPP) started Pokuase Interchange.
According to Kwame Agbodza, “this government has never built any Interchange since 2017 and I’ve document as capture in the Hansard of Parliament”
The MP at the news conference in Parliament on 7th July, 2021 made the point, “it was under John Dramani Mahama government in 2016 when Parliament took the decision to approve that loan to deal with the traffic congestion in Accra and Pokuase is one of those projects”.
In November 2016 Parliament approved a $83.6 million loan for the expansion of the Pokuase-APC Junction road in Accra to ease traffic congestion on that stretch.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) was providing the funds, while the Government of Ghana (GoG) was to offer a counterpart funding of $11.1 million.
The MP said, “following the parliamentary approval, the procurement process for the project was expected to start in earnest”.
His submissions followed a media report that the government is set to open the newly constructed Pokuase Interchange for traffic and the comments from the presidency to the effect that it was the NPP government that started the project.
But the NDC MPs have refuted those claims and asked Ghanaians to ignore government propaganda ahead of the opening of the interchange to ease traffic on Accra Kumasi highway.
Objectives
The Pokuase Interchange is a four-tier interchange situated at Pokuase Junction. It lies on the Nsawam Road and connects the Nsawam Road to the George Walker Bush Highway
The project is located in the western corridor of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and is contiguous to the main Awoshie-Pokuase road.
This construction of the Pokuase Interchange and associated works, is aimed at removing the expected bottleneck at the Pokuase junction by preventing streams of traffic conflicting with one another from the Awoshie-Pokuase and Accra-Kumasi roads.
It was proposed that funding for this project be provided by African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government of Ghana (GoG).
According to African Development Group, the project aimed to
- Increased employment opportunities for residents;
- Improved mobility on the Accra-Nsawam section of the Accra-Kumasi Highway;
- A reduction in the incidence of Road accidents at ACP Junction;
- Improved business opportunities for local businesses; and
- Reduction in vehicle operating cost as result of reduced traveling time between Awoshie and Pokuase.
This project was to enable GOG to achieve its objective of enhancing urban mobility and improving livelihoods in the project area of influence. Furthermore, the Pokuase Interchange helps reduce traffic on, and facilitates traffic between two key roads, the Tema-Ouagadougou-Bamako corridor and the Awoshie-Pokuase road.
Story filed by Edzorna Francis Mensah
