‘Terrible’ Bolga-Wa road will soon be history – Road Minister assures Mahama during inspection

Minister for Roads and Highways Kwame Governs Agbodza has assured residents and motorists that the poor condition of the Bolgatanga-Wa road will soon be addressed as contractors intensify work on sections of the corridor.

Mr. Agbodza gave the assurance during President John Dramani Mahama’s inspection of ongoing construction works on the Chuchuliga-Chiana section of the Chuchuliga-Tumu-Wa road as part of the President’s two-day working tour of the Upper East Region.

The Roads Minister said contractors working along the corridor had returned to site, following government efforts to clear outstanding payments that had previously affected the pace of construction.

“When this is done, Your Excellency, this idea of a terrible road between Bolga and Wa would be completely resolved and then everybody would know that this corridor is safe and passable for everybody. I must say that other contractors working on the stretch all the way to Wa are already working,” he said.

Mr. Agbodza attributed previous delays in the project to payment challenges, explaining that the government had cleared outstanding certificates owed the contractor working on the section inspected by President Mahama.

“Frankly speaking, they would have gone further than now, but what the problem was about payment. As of now, the two new certificates they raised haven’t even gone through the process to the Minister of Finance. Whatever we’ve got in terms of indebtedness to them we’ve cleared so far and it’s reflecting on the amount of work they are doing on site,” he said.

He said the government was also taking steps to address road challenges across the Upper East Region, with more contractors expected to return to project sites in the coming months.

“In this region there are lots of issues that we needed to address and we have started addressing them. Every district, every constituency, issues are being addressed. In the coming months you will see that many of the roads that people are worried about, contractors will start working on them,” Mr. Agbodza stated.

The Minister said the section currently being undertaken forms part of the government’s Big Push infrastructure programme.

“What my Ministry is doing up to here is a Big Push project,” he said.

Mr. Agbodza further said the Mahama administration had prioritised the payment of arrears owed contractors while simultaneously undertaking new road projects across the country.

“So you will be on record to be the president that paid the largest portion of arrears under any government in our history. So you are not only continuing works you inherited, you are also doing new ones,” he told President Mahama.

According to President Mahama, the approximately 34.23-kilometre Chuchuliga-Chiana road project has been divided among a number of contractors, including MyTurn Construction Limited, to accelerate construction.

The Chuchuliga-Tumu-Wa road forms part of an important transport corridor linking the Upper East and Upper West regions and facilitating the movement of people, goods and services between the two regions.