THE Kpone Industrial community within the Tema metropolis boasts multi-million dollar investment projects, yet access routes to these sites over the years have been in deplorable conditions.
The roads, which also serve as an access route to the Kpone township, connecting commuters to Michel Camp, Dawhenya, Prampram and its environs, have over the last three decades not received any attention.
The catchment area is home to multinational companies such as Toyota Ghana Limited, the newly built Sunon Asogli Power Plant; oil giants, Chase Petroleum, and local companies including Aluworks, Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), and the Volta River Authority which is currently mounting tank farms, to serve as storage and offloading facility to augment the stocks of TOR.
The more than $4.7million investments in the area may, however, remain unproductive owing to the deplorable conditions of roads leading to the site.
The Asogli Plant and the Chase projects, the Daily Graphic learnt, could generate over 900 direct employment avenues in addition to 500 minor jobs in security, catering and other support services.
Residents and commuters who ply the seven-kilometre road daily from the VALCO roundabout, the Tema heavy industrial establishment and the Kpone community have, therefore, appealed to the government, as a matter of urgency, to rehabilitate the roads and help boost economic activities in the locality.
A taxi driver, Abraham Tetteh Narh, who plies the route daily, told this reporter that driving on the bumpy and dusty road could be uncomfortable.
According to him, a journey from Tema to Kpone which hitherto could take 15 minutes, now took commuters more than 45 minutes.
This, according to him, has resulted in drivers incurring higher maintenance cost due to frequent breakdowns.
“A recent asphalt scrapping on the surface of the road by a contractor tasked to refill the stretch, by the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), has worsened the condition,” Mr Narh lamented.
Togbe Afede XIV, the initiator of the Sunon Asogli Power project, in a telephone interview bemoaned the fact that the road infrastructure within the entire enclave had not received any attention, and expressed the fear that the bad nature of the road might not give investors in the affected areas the opportunity to recoup their investments.
While urging the government to take measures towards putting roads within the industrial community in a better shape, he also appealed to the city authorities to ensure that quality of work was not compromised.
The Chairman of the project, LI Kweku Shaw Lee, also expressed frustration at the bad nature of the roads.
According to him, the security of the industrial community ought to be a paramount concern to the government, and the stakeholders seeking to develop the country.
Mr Shaw Lee indicated that "accessing the plant's switch yard, which is linked to the national grid in the event of a total power failure, remained a risk should the road infrastructure remain in the same grubby state."
"If government wants to fully attain its vision of an industrial nation, access routes to investment sites ought to be given the needed attention to attract the needed investment that will also go into securing employment opportunities for citizens," he stated.
The executive of the Tanker Drivers Association also expressed dissatisfaction with the attitude of the city authorities concerning the condition of the roads in the Tema metropolis
The Secretary of the association, Mr Raymond Narh, stated that the January 2010 fire outbreak at TOR sent panic within the entire community resulting in several tankers being involved in head-on collision as the drivers struggled to escape the inferno.
“I can tell you for a fact the many casualties that occurred at the time outside the refinery could have been avoided if the roads were in good condition,” a driver also remarked.
The Tema Metropolitan Roads Engineer, Mr Stephen Attipoe, said in a telephone interview that some roads in the metropolis, including the Kpone township, the Aflao road and the Ashaiman Zeenu stretch had been awarded to Core Constructions and work was expected to begin very soon.
According to him, the cost of the project, which is estimated at GH¢ 6.7 million, might go up due to the scope of works involved and gave an assurance that an interim certificate had been issued for the commencement of the project.
The contractor, Mr Frank Lartey, on the other hand, hinted that cash flow for the project was limited, thereby, delaying the entire project. He said about 40 per cent of work had been completed from the main Kpone junction on the main Tema-Aflao road.
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