Our roads aren’t artistic impressions in Green Book – Bawumia teases NDC
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Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has taken a subtle jab at the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) over delivering tangible promises to the citizenry.
He argues that projects promised Ghanaians by the current administration are not artistic impressions as was the case under the NDC, adding that they are there for all to see and feel.
It would be recalled that in the run-up to the 2016 elections, former Deputy General Secretary of the then ruling party, Koku Anyidoho admitted that some of the pictures of projects used in the party’s Green Book were indeed artistic impressions.
“My brother, it is possible in the green book you may find some artistic impressions”, he said in response to concerns on live radio.
While commissioning the 31.2 km road from Assin-Fosu to Assin-Praso named as N8 highway in the Assin North District of the Central Region, funded with the grant from the Japanese government and executed by Shimizu Dai Nippon Joint Ventures, a construction firm under the supervision of the Ghana Highways Authority, Dr. Bawumia challenged all those who doubted the existence of such a road to prove otherwise
The project was estimated at $50 million.
In his address at the event, he alluded to the project being a real, tangible one and not a ‘green book’ type, a reference to the NDC’s infrastructure book in the roundup to the 2016 elections.
“It is so beautiful to see this road so beautifully done. I’m so impressed with the work done, so this road is not a “green book” road but a ‘feeli-feeli,’ road,” Dr Bawumia jabbed.
The NDC had cause to defend most of the projects in the said book even as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its assigns insisted that most of the projects in the book were ghost projects.
The commissioned road is part of massive infrastructure projects being completed in the Assin North constituency ahead of a high-stake by-election occasioned by the ouster of the NDC Member of Parliament James Gyakye Quayson from Parliament by the Supreme Court.
The road project was completed six months before schedule.
It started on Monday, January 13, 2020, and was expected to be completed on Sunday, December 31, 2023.
The road would significantly facilitate the movement of goods, ensure easy access to markets and services, guarantee reductions in road accidents and road user costs, and improve travel time to enhance the social and economic lives of the people in the Assin area and beyond.
More than 18 kilometres of the road is through the Assin North Constituency and the project scope includes a 1.2-kilometre dual stretch within the Assin-Fosu township and new drainage systems.
Others are the construction of concrete pavements, and reconstruction of the railway underpass bridge with a reinforced box culvert among other ancillaries and dualization of a four-lane carriageway with a 1.2 km street lighting in Assin-Fosu.
The stretch formed part of the 176 km N8 starting from Yamoransa near Cape Coast through major towns such as Abura-Dunkwa, Assin-Fosu and Assin-Praso, which ends at Anwiankwanta in the Ashanti Region and connects the N1 to the northern part of Ghana.
The rehabilitation of the road being done in phases commenced with the first phase from Bekwai to Assin-Praso, which was completed in December 2013.
The N8 was originally constructed between 1990 and 1994 with funding from the government of Japan.
