At a ceremony at Kwadaso on Friday, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President, cut the sod for the commencement of the Kumasi inner city road project.
The Kumasi inner city road project is part of the Master Project Support Agreement (MPSA) between Ghana and China through the SinoHydro Corporation.
It is one of the 10 lots under the first phase of the MPSA which involved the construction of two interchanges and rehabilitation of 441 kilometres (km) of road network.
The sod cutting for the 100 km road network falls within the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, six municipalities and a district assembly including Kwadaso, Bantama, Suame, Tafo Pankrono and Asante Mampong.
Works to be undertaken include drainage, earth works and bituminous surfacing works, and expected to be completed in 30 months.
According to the Vice President, the main objective of the project was to improve quality of life of the people and to reduce travel time within the Kumasi metropolis.
He mentioned that under the Sino Hydro agreement lots of projects had taken off such as the Tamale and Takoradi interchanges, Sunyani, Berekum and Cape Coast inner city roads, and “now we are in Ashanti to do the Kumasi inner city roads.”
Dr Bawumia indicated that government had provided a lot of projects in the Ashanti Region stressing that, “so far, 227 km of roads had been asphalted.”
He said “between now and 2024 we are providing additional 400 km of asphalt roads.”
The Kumasi roads and drainage extension project, he said, was also on course and about 80 per cent work done which included the upgrading of the lake road into a dual carriage.
The Vice President thanked the government of China through Sino Hydro for the project, saying, “We thank you for the cooperation that has existed between Ghana and China and the work we have been able to do together,” adding, “there is more to come between the two countries following our cooperation,” as he hoped the Chinese government, under the agreement, would soon tackle the Adenta to Dodowa road network.