President John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday performed the ceremony for reconstruction work to begin on the two lane single carriageway 56-kilometre Enchi - Asankrangwa road. The Government is funding the GH¢24.1 million project scheduled for completion in three years. Designed for a life span of 15 years, the work would involve double sealed bituminous surface, improvement of the road geometry, provision of bus-bays, taxi stopping lanes in towns, drainage structures, crash barriers and speed calming measures. Chinese contractors, Top International Engineering Corporation Ghana Limited is undertaking the job. President Kufuor said with the start of work on this road project, the Government was steadily actualizing its vision of providing a network of good, motorable and safe roads to enhance socio-economic development. He said the Government appreciated the need to lay appropriate infrastructure to open up the country hence the priority it was giving to road construction and maintenance in all parts of the country. In the resource-rich Western Region, the length of paved roads covering the trunk, feeder and urban network had more than doubled from a total of 520 kilometres in 2000 to 1,096 kilometres in 2005. When data for the period 2006-2007 are finally collated the figures would definitely go up, he said. The length of unpaved roads also increased from 829 kilometres in 2000 to 6,546 kilometres as at the end of 2006. President Kufuor announced that the Government under the Cocoa Roads Improvement Project was spending 100 million dollars to tar or surface-dress some selected roads in six selected cocoa growing regions. Out of the amount 19 million dollars had been allocated to the Region, the biggest cocoa area, for upgrading of 223 kilometres of gravel roads to bituminous surface, this year. He mentioned some of these as Asankragwa - Moseaso; Enchi - Jensue; Telekubokazo - Anyinase; Juaboso-Nkwanta - Bonsu Nkwanta; Asasetre – Adubrim; Debiso – Adabokrom; Adabokrom - Camp 15 Junction - Adiembra and Sefwi – Asawinso - Mile 81 roads. President Kufuor gave the assurance that the Region would never be denied of its fair share of development projects. Mr Geofrey Bayon Tangu, Minister responsible for Transportation, said the road when completed would significantly reduce the travel time and would also contribute to the long term goal of facilitating increased trade with the country's sub-regional neighbours of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Odeneho Brentuo, Omanhene of Enchi, said they were grateful to the Government for the numerous projects they had benefited from, citing schools, teachers' accommodation and health facilities as well as relief items sent to victims of the floods that hit the area. Source: GNA