This year may be the last the people who use the  Kandiga –Sirigu road have to contend with its deplorable state, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Hon Kwesi Amoako-Atta has assured.

According to him, the road has received budget approval and plans are on the drawing board to give the troubled road a facelift before 2022 ends.

Hon Amoako Atta disclosed this in response to a parliamentary question posed by the Member of Parliament for Chiana/Paga Constituency, Hon Thomas Adda Dalu, on Friday, February 4, 2022.

Hon Dalu summoned the Roads Minister to Parliament seeking to know when the Ministry would complete works on the road.

“Mr. Speaker, I rise to ask the Minister for Roads and Highways when the Ministry will complete works on the Kandiga to Sirigu road in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region,” Chiana/Paga lawmaker questioned the Minister.

Answering the question, the sector Minister said the 17km road is an engineered inter-district feeder road linking Kandinga and Sirigu in the Kassena-Nankana West and to the Kassena-Nankana Central District of the Upper East Region.

He told parliament the first 5km of the road is bitumen surfaced and is in fair surface condition, whilst the remaining section from 5km to 17km is gravel in poor surface condition.

The Minister explained that the first 10km was awarded in two lots to two contractors in January 2011 and August 2011 respectively for bitumen surfacing under COCOBOD funding.

The contractor executing the first 5km, Mr. Amoako Atta said, carried out the works up to the final seal but failed to install the road furniture.

Similarly, he said the contractor working on the second 5km also worked up to the base layer and abandoned the works.

The Minister added that, following the Contractors’ failure to complete the work, the Ministry has both contracts terminated and repackaged.

He however indicated that the road is being considered for award of a contract under the 2022 budget of the Department of Feeder Roads (DFR).

He assured the MP and the people of Kandiga -Sirigu that, President Akufo Addo’s government placed premium on roads infrastructure and would work hard to give the road a face lift before the year ends.

However, Hon Dalu said the road is an important economic road in the Eastern Zone of the Constituency and appealed to the Minister to consider reshaping the road to reduce what he termed “manholes” that have developed on the entire stretch of the road.

Hon Thomas Dalu

The road is one of the major roads that link the communities and others, thus  Sirigu – Kandiga-Mirigu-Navrongo, Sirigu-Natugunia-Mayoro and Sirigu-Yua roads.

It also served as a direct entry point to SWOPA, Sirigu Senior High School and the Martyrs of Uganda Health Centre, the largest health facility in the community.

The road was awarded on contract to be asphalt from the Kandiga Junction to Sirigu, but stopped a few kilometres away from its starting point and has since been abandoned for reasons best known to the authorities.

Countless efforts by the residents of the two communities to get something positive done about the road had all failed.

As a result,  residents led by the Chief of Sirigu and Kandiga mobilized the youth and elders of their respective communities to reshape parts of the road after a culvert which was constructed over a stream had collapsed.

Source: expressnewsghana.com

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