KUMASI MAYOR ON KMA PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
For the year 2016, out of a total of 84 projects embarked upon - 57 new and 27 ongoing, 40 were completed at the end of the year.
The Kumasi Mayor, Hon. Osei Assibey Antwi made this known in his sessional address delivered recently at the second ordinary meeting of the second session of the seventh Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly in Kumasi.
He also said the 2017 Annual Action Plan rolled out a total of 89 projects and by the end of March, 2017 nine had been completed with 56 ongoing while 24 projects were yet to commence.
According to him, an advertisement would soon be placed to commence the procurement process for projects under DDF and UDG 5 and in extract of the first quarter 2017 progress report on project implementation would be made available to Assembly members when the Assembly commenced the discussion of the sessional address.
The Kumasi Mayor spoke about the redevelopment and modernization of the Kejetia and Central Market as well as other satellite markets at Krofrom and Atonsu and said they were underway.
Hon. Osei Assibey said the Kejetia Project started on 14th July 2015 and was expected to be completed on 13th January 2018 but the non-availability of the entire site to the contractor had requested for additional six months extension of time.
On congestion in the Kumasi metropolis, he said the area around Kejetia and Central market, the median of the roads in the Central Business District (CBD) as well as other densely populated commercial areas within the metropolis would be decongested.
The Kumasi mayor also touched on sanitation and waste management and pointed out that apart from being a major source of financial drain on the Assembly, it was one of the areas where the Assembly had incurred huge debts.
To address the sanitation situation in the metropolis, Hon. Osei Assibey said the Assembly would among other measures ensure an effective monitoring and evaluation of the door-to-door system of waste collection and also ban the indiscriminate dumping of waste at dump sites by the riders of the tricycles popularly known as ‘Aboboyaa’.
He also said the Assembly would embark on a mass education of all stakeholders on safe solid waste management and also rehabilitate the KMA Waste Management Mechanical Workshop for building of skip containers.
The Mayor expressed dismay about KMA’s financial liabilities which stood at GH¢ 119,213,333.22 accumulated over several years lamenting that within a space of three months (October to December 2016), the Assembly’s Judgement debt stock had risen from GH¢ 6,427,287.75 to GH¢ 50,602,874.43.