Majority of contractors working on the government housing project at Kpone and Borteyman have abandoned the site. Efforts to trace them have proved futile as most of the telephone numbers and addresses they gave could not be reached. The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Abubakari Saddique Boniface, came face-to-face with this spectacle when he paid a working visit to the project sites last Friday. The project, which was introduced by the government to provide about 1,900 affordable housing units in the first phase at the cost of ¢200 billion for working people, is behind schedule by almost a year. The units range from one-bedroom self-contained apartments to three-bedroom semi-detached houses and form part of the 100,000 housing units the government intends to construct before the end of 2008. With the pace of work at the site, the dream of constructing 100,000 housing units may not be realised by 2008. At Kpone, some of the buildings were at the foundation level while others were either at the lintel level or being roofed. The situation was not different at Borteyman and a representative of the project consultant there, Mr Geoffrey Klu, said 14 contractors had had their contracts terminated due to the lackadaisical attitude they had adopted to work. The minister, who was disappointed at the progress of work, said efforts would be intensified to locate the contractors and indicated that the ministry would convene a meeting quickly to find out why the contractors had abandoned the projects. He said if after the meeting the contractors failed to undertake the project, the ministry would advise itself accordingly. He said if it became necessary, the entire contract would be reviewed or terminated. In a related development, the minister also toured the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project site. The purpose of the project is to improve the ecological and environmental aspects of the KorIe Lagoon and to offer substantial improvements to the city's drainage and flooding problems by way of ensuring good flood water conveyance to the sea. At the project site, the minister was briefed at every stage of the project by engineers of International Marine and Dredging Consultants and JV Dredging International. The contractors complained that the project had delayed because whenever silt was removed from the lagoon, new garbage and materials went back into it leading to the lagoon being silted again. The problem, according to the consultants, was the result of the activities of residents of Sodom and Gomorra and pollutants from upstream getting into the canals from other parts of the city. Mr Boniface said the government was sourcing funds to develop a parcel of land acquired at Adjin Kotoku to relocate the people of Sodom and Gomorra there. He said a topographical survey of the relocation area and the preliminary design for the basic infrastructural facilities of the area had been prepared. Source: Daily Graphic