The Asikuma-Junction to Have portion of the Eastern Corridor Road, spanning some 45 kilometres, would be ready in 15 months, Mr Abu Mohammed, Representative of the Resident Engineer of GS Developers, the Chinese Company executing the project, has assured.

He said work was progressing on eight kilometres of that portion with one side expected to be asphalted in two weeks, after the fixing of the crashed rock base.

Mr Mohammed was addressing a team from the Presidency, the Ministry of Roads and Highways, the Volta Regional Coordinating Council, some Members of Parliament from the Volta Region and the media, on a fact-finding tour on the Eastern Corridor road.

The tour was directed by the Presidency to enable the government to ascertain the level of work done on the project, which cuts through four regions, connects to Burkina Faso onwards to Mali and Niger. The stretch reduces the south to north travel time.

Mr Mohammed said though delayed payment stalled the project, work was progressing “greatly” now and stated the commitment of the contractor to meet the new deadline.

Mr Prosper Bani, Chief of Staff, who led the team said the government made a commitment of over 20 million Ghana cedis as “standby resources” to refund contractors on the project and urged them to keep to their side of the contract.

He said variations in the contract sums were also noted and being worked on.

Mr Bani said a monitoring team would be set up to brief the Presidency and the Ministry of Roads and Highways regularly on the progress of work on the corridor and ensure that contractors delivered the projects on time.

Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Minister of Roads and Highways said beneficiary regions and communities could not wait any longer for the completion of work on the corridor and charged the contractors to be schedule.