Residents and motorists in Jankufa in the Jaman North District of Bono Region have called on the government to fix the bad roads in the area without delay.

The government in its quest to address the poor road networks in major parts of the country declared 2020 the “year of roads”.

Delivering the 2020 Budget in Parliament, the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta, said the government would largely focus and prioritize road projects to improve infrastructure in that sector and bring an end to the cry of Ghanaians for better roads.

Ridiculing the opposition National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) claims of massive road infrastructure in its Green Book, the Finance Minister indicated that the governing party would revamp the road sector and pay what is owed to contractors.

“Today, the cry everywhere in Ghana is about the poor state of our roads. It is an unprecedented cry and it makes you wonder where all the roads in the NDC’s Green Book are. Mr Speaker, this is why we are going to focus more on fixing our roads across the country in 2020 and beyond.

‘’To get the road sector moving and contractors back to work, the government will pay 80% of all contractors. We have identified critical roads across each of the 16 regions and construction would begin on all these critical roads soon.

“Mr Speaker, Ghanaians want action on our roads, not words or plans or Green Book claims about what has been done. We intend to swing into action and let our work do the talking for us. Mr Speaker with this large number of roads to be constructed, the year 2020 can aptly be described as “The Year of Roads” along with a focus on all our flagship programmes,’’ he disclosed.

READ ALSO:

We can Fight Covid-19 with Herbal Medicine - Traditional Healers Association

Mr Ofori Atta said the government as part of its new initiative to complement the traditional execution of road projects had launched the Accelerated Community Road Improvement Initiative.

But expressing their displeasure on the poor road network in the area to the media, Jaman North drivers and residents are yet to receive their share of this promise. They described the bad nature of the roads as ‘streams on dams’ especially during the raining season which makes movement difficult, especially at night.

Drivers who ply the road daily added that “we have to always visit the mechanic anytime we use the road because of our vehicles always breakdown and as a result, we sometimes do not want to use the road at all.”

However, the Chief of Jankufa, Nana Arko Tuffuor II, further appealed to the government and Department 0of Urban Roads to improve the dilapidated road network in the area which has over the years negatively impacted their businesses.

Nana Ama Asiedu, Bono Regional Correspondent