Minister for Roads and Highways, Mr Kwasi Amoako-Atta has urged road contractors to prioritise quality service delivery to reduce the financial burden on the government due to shoddy work.

He said quality roads were critical in connecting cities, facilitating trade, attracting, and retaining investments hence the Government's commitment to invest heavily in that sector.

The Minister made the call during a day's working visit to the Central Region where he inspected some ongoing road projects and urged the contractors to speed work on the projects.

Mr Amoako-Atta was accompanied by Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, Central Regional Minister, Mr Kingsley Adjei Boahen, Regional Coordinating Director, officials of  Roads and Highways and the media.

The tour began at Abeadze-Dominase, where he inspected a 23-kilometre road from Mankessim-Teti junction on the Assin-Fosu-Yamoransa highway.

Twelve kilometres of the road was done by Midwest Construction Limited with earth works ongoing at some portions.

The contractor commenced work on Tuesday, January 9, 2020, and is scheduled to complete it in 2023, he noted.

The Minister reiterated the government's commitment to providing good road networks across the country to ease the challenges of travellers and boost socio-economic activities.

The Minister visited Assin-Fosu, where he inspected the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the drainage system and a railway underpass reinforced with a concrete box culvert designed to allow the passing of water.

The construction formed part of a $58million grant from the Republic of Japan for the rehabilitation of a 31.2-killometre asphaltic concrete road from Assin-Fosu to Assin-Assin-Praso in the Assin North District and Assin Central Municipality.

The construction includes a dualisation of about 1,200 metres into a four-lane carriageway of a 1.2kilometre section in the centre of the Assin-Fosu township.

In addition, it would among others have about 2,400 metres U-shaped vertical drainage.

It will also have a five road crossing drainage in five locations and New Jersey type centre median dualized section with bus stops, steps, street lighting and traffic safety devices with asphaltic concrete pavements.

Mr Amoako-Atta climaxed the tour at Assin-Bereku, where the Assin-Fosu- Praso road is being constructed by Shimizu-Dai-Nippon joint venture and is scheduled to be completed by December 2022.

The Assin-Fosu - Praso road is a major trunk road for transporting export commodities such as timber, cocoa, gold, manganese and bauxite to the ports, especially the Takoradi harbour.

It is also an international logistics corridor to and from the northern part of Ghana and other countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Mr Amoako-Atta expressed satisfaction with the progress and quality of work done by the contractors.

When completed, economic activities would increase, improve road safety and ease congestion on the corridor to ensure redistribution of vehicular movement while providing comfort and convenience for motorists.

He pledged to work with the Ministry of Energy and Ministry for Water Resources to relocate all utility facilities being affected by the construction and also pay all compensation to persons whose structures had been affected promptly to relieve their economic plights.

On arrears owed road contractors, the Minister gave an assurance of the government’s commitment to release funds to pay the contractors to aid their work and stimulate the economy.