Parliament has approved a whopping of €256million for the upgrade of Lot One of the Eastern Corridor road project.
The lot runs from Tema Roundabout through Kpong to the Adomi Bridge.
The project includes 19 pedestrian bridges and two intersections at Ashaiman Roundabout and Asutuare Junction.
A Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwabena Owusu-Aduomi, has underscored the need for the project to begin.
“It is good that that project has made adequate funding for geotechnical investigation. Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker mentioned what we are going to do on the road. The first 14 kilometres is a three-lane on each side. Then we will continue with two lanes on each side and then we’ll end up 11 kilometres with a single lane on the other side. This is a very important project that I want the House to approve because it is now going to join the Eastern Corridor project that we started from Asikuma junction towards the north so it is a very good project,” he told the House.
Project
The Eastern Corridor road, for a while, dominated media and public discussion in the country.
Residents and commuters have over the years appealed to the government to resume work on the deplorable Eastern Corridor road, whose deplorable nature is negatively affecting them.
Although the Roads and Highways Minister, Kwesi Amoako Atta, had in the past promised that the Eastern Corridor road would be ready by the end of 2020, he re-echoed in January this year that users of the road would soon see a facelift on that stretch.
Speaking on the final day of a recent Results Fair, he said contractors had resumed work on the road and its completion would shorten the time users will spend on it.
“I am happy to announce that, as we speak, the Eastern Corridor road, which has been neglected for a very long time, about six or seven contractors are on it working on that stretch of road and it is very important because it links the south to the north,” he said.
Being the shortest route between the southern sector and the northern sector of the country, the 965-kilometre Eastern Corridor Road links five regions: Greater Accra, Eastern, Ashanti, Volta, Oti and Upper East.
