The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, has said the first ever flyer over in the northern regional capital, Tamale, would be commissioned by President Nana Akufo-Addo by middle of March, 2022 and opened to traffic.
Aside the yet to be completed Tamale interchange, the Minister indicated a lot of other road infrastructure projects are ongoing in the northern region. He noted the government is doing over 100 kilometers of asphalt roads within the region.
“We have finished with Nalerigu, Gambaga, Yendi and the rest and from here they [Contractors] are going to Damongo to do 10 kilometers of asphaltic overlay and so far about 85 kilometers have been done in the northern region alone” he asserted.
He assured the government would continue to do more road construction for Ghanaians and was also optimistic that the much talked about electronic transaction levy (E-levy) will generate the needed revenue to pay contractors and do more projects across the country.
In this vein, the Member of Parliament for Atiwa West called on the citizenry and his colleague MPs from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to support the passage of the E-levy to enable the government raised enough funds for development.
“So the people of this country, the people of Tamale and all MPs in Tamale must support the passage of the E-levy bill for more to be done for them and their constituents” he implored.
The resident engineer, Emmanuel Degbeche, in a media interview said that the total works completed is 95% and the remaining 5% will completed on schedule.
This, he estimated 2.5% work is left to complete the bridge and the remaining 2.5% for ancillary works.
“The ancillary works includes the drains, the curves and the side roads under the bridge” he added.
For his part, the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Shani Alhassan Shaibu said the commissioning of the interchange will bring relief to commuters and ease the regular vehicular congestion within the central business area.
“So there is no doubt that after the completion of this project, traffic flow would be regular here and the people would have the benefit to do their normal businesses without any hindrance” he stressed.
Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2019 cut the sod for the construction of the Tamale interchange and launched the $2 billion Sinohydro Master Project Support Agreement (MPSA).
The Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration secured the $2 billion barter arrangement with China to deliver priority infrastructure projects nationwide in exchange for the delivery of the country’s aluminium products to Sinohydro.