Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia on Friday, June 23, 2023; took a swipe at the National Democratic Congress (NDC) during the commissioning of a road stretch in the Central Region.
With president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo out of the country, Bawumia was the seniormost government offficial at the opening of the $50 million Assin-Fosu to Assin-Praso N8 highway in the Assin North District.
The 31.2 km road project funded with the grant from the Japanese government, was executed by Shimizu Dai Nippon Joint Ventures, a construction firm, under the supervision of the Ghana Highways Authority.
In his address at the event, he alluded to the project being a real, tangible one and not a 'green book' type, 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 masssive 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.
With additional files from GNA
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Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Ghana
