Government says it is unable to construct additional footbridges on the N1 Highway despite tens of lives being lost to road accidents on that stretch.

Since the commissioning of the George Walker Bush Highway (N1 Highway) in 2012 several accidents have been recorded on the 14-kilometer Tetteh Quarshie – Mallam road. Over 50 pedestrians attempting to cross the highway have been knocked down and killed by speeding vehicles.

Complaints by residents of Abeka Lapaz and other communities located along the highway attracted the central government’s attention. The people were promised additional footbridges to be built at vantage points.

But Roads Minister Alhaji Inusah Fuseini today said the footbridges promised the people will not happen anytime soon because conditions in the IMF bailout forbid government from awarding the contract.

The Minister said this is notwithstanding the fact that funds were secured to execute the footbridges and other projects.

“The implementation of the construction of the footbridges programme has been greatly affected by the IMF programme we have entered into,” Inusah Fuseini said.

He explained, “The IMF has put a cap on the limit by which we can take funding from commercial sources, so that clearly is the challenges.”

Government would now have to resort to using the resources for street lights projects to “lighten up the streets” to improve the security situations and forestall accidents which usually occur at night, he stated.

On the way forward, Alhaji Fuseini said to get these footbridges done, government would have to consider other forms of loan other than commercial loans.