The Head of Public Relations at the Ministry of Roads and Highways, Nasir Ahmed Yartey, has claimed that the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), and the International Monetary Fund agreement (IMF), are to blame for the country’s stalled road interchanges throughout the country.
The Obetsebi Lamptey interchange, Flower Pot interchange, Tema Motorway interchange, Nungua Barrier interchange, Kumasi Suame interchange, and the Takoradi PTC interchange (which is about 75% complete) are some significant interchanges throughout the country that needs to be completed.
In an interview on Citi FM in Accra on Monday, Spetember 4, 2023, Mr. Yartey said, “Before the IMF and the debt exchange programme, we got into as a country, you agree with me that all these interchanges that you referred to were moving at similar paces, and they were moving very fast. It is the IMF and the debt exchange that has affected them and slowed them down.”
The Flower Pot interchange project is anticipated to be completed by the end of March 2024. According to Mr. Yartey, the only obstacle is building the bridge over the Motorway.
“The Flower Pot interchange is on schedule to be completed. The major hurdle now is the construction of the bridge over the motorway. We issued a press release on it this morning, and work is going on over there very seriously. Once we are done with the construction of the bridge over the motorway, what will be left will be the groundwork, road work, and other things.
“Those ones don’t take much time. The concrete ones don’t take much time, so once we are done with that one, we should be finishing that project on schedule. The project is scheduled to be completed early next year, so we are looking at somewhere by the end of the first quarter or the second quarter of next year,” he said.
The construction of the Obetsebi-Lamptey interchange, Nungua interchange, and Takoradi PTC interchange projects were all delayed by the DDEP, the Ministry of Roads and Highways’ Head of PR emphasized, adding that, the government is currently in discussions with the project’s financiers to resume work.
“That one (Obestebi-Lamptey interchange) together with Nungua and PTC in Takoradi have been affected by the DDEP that we’ve entered into. As I speak to you, the government is negotiating with its financiers to see how best we can get these projects back running, and we are hoping that before the year ends, we should be hearing some good news and getting the contractors back,” he stated.
