Gov’t owes GHC2m for deplorable Abom-Kitase road – Contractor

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The woes of persons who depend on the Abom junction to Kitase road could be blamed on the unavailability of funds to the contractors.

The current contractors working on the road, Comet Construction Company, revealed that it has not had any funds to work with since it took over from Facol Construction contractors in 2014.

Comet Construction has even had to sink in GHc 2 million to GHc 3 million of is own money to construct mainly culverts and drains.

After completing a particular length of the stretch, a company was issued a certificate, the first of which was issued in March 2015.

The construction company has raised more than six certificates at present, according to a manager at Comet Properties, Nana Adom.

Facol Construction signed the road contract in 2012 with the Highways department and sub-contracted it to Comet Construction.

The road from Abom junction to Berekuso is seen to be in a deplorable state, making it virtually immotorable at certain points.

Comet itself manages a gated community in Berekuso, which is on the stretch of the road project. The Ashesi University campus is also located in the area, leaving commuters and their cars at the mercy of the heavily eroded feeder roads.

In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show, Nana Adom said the money was not readily available since, “as we took over from Facol, we have not been given a pesewa yet. We ourselves mobilised some funds and started the whole thing.”

According to Nana Adom, Facol had done basically nothing, after work on just 2 km of the 15 km stretch.

He noted that “beginning from the Abom junction to a portion of the very bad place, that is where Falcon was supposed to have tackled with the mobilisation they had.”

The road would have been done by now if the government had released some money for the project, Nana Adom emphasised confidently.

“If we had had funds by now, we would not be talking about the road. Since 2014, even without the mobilisation, what we did on our own, the people themselves will attest to that… It is a money matter. We have everything – the machines are there. The manpower is there and the engineers are on standby. It will not even take us more than six months to get this road fixed.”

Work done impeded by rain

Nana Adom noted that his company had completed 50 to 70 percent of the road; consisting of work on about 4,300 metres of drains and providing 25 to 30 culverts along the stretch. “All that was left was just putting the laterite, filling,” he stated.

However “all the work we did at the base of the sloped area of the road and the mountainous nature of the road, the rain washed everything and now we are back to square one again.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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