The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwame Governs Agbodza, has charged Maripoma Enterprise Limited, the contractor responsible for the Dambai Bridge project to ensure the project is completed within the stipulated timeframe.
Speaking during an inspection of the project on Wednesday, July 8, Agbodza said one of the recurring concerns raised by the public is the slowdown of construction works without adequate explanation from authorities.
He stressed that the government is determined to avoid such a situation on the 1.5km Dambai Bridge project.
“Many times, we see projects start and Ghanaians begin to complain that the works have slowed down and no one explains the situation to them. We will not sit down for anybody to delay this project. This project must be completed on schedule,” he stated.
According to the Minister, the government has taken several proactive measures to ensure the smooth execution of the project. These include awarding the contract on time and making an early mobilization payment to the contractor, a practice he noted had not been common on some previous government projects.
“The first step was to make sure we award the job on time and then the next thing we did was to pay mobilization, which was not characteristic of previous projects because government was no longer paying that,” he explained.
Mr. Agbodza added that officials from the Ministry have been making regular visits to the construction site to engage with the contractor and quickly resolve any challenges that arise.
“You notice that we are constantly moving to the site to meet the contractors; if there are issues, we deal with them,” he said.
The Roads Minister expressed confidence that projects being executed under the government’s Big Push infrastructure programme can be completed within their contractual timelines, provided contractors maintain the expected pace of work.
“So far, we don’t envisage that any Big Push contract should go beyond the period we have given them. Whether 36 months or 40 months is a lot of time to be able to do this work,” he noted.
The Dambai Bridge project is expected to improve connectivity between communities in the Oti Region and facilitate the movement of people, goods and services across the Volta Lake corridor and River Oti.
The government has identified the project as one of the major infrastructure initiatives under the Big Push programme aimed at accelerating national development.
