Mr Amoako-Atta talking to the resident during his inspection tour
The Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, has ordered a private developer working on a road reservation behind the Ecobank at Achimota Mile 7 in Accra to stop work and produce all documents to the ministry within two days.
The developer who gave his name as Alex Addo claimed his father bought the land 21 years ago but could not produce the building permit he said was issued to him by the Ga West Assembly now Ga North Assembly.
He was thus ordered to remove the building materials he had dumped on the land together with the excavator.
Mr Amoako-Atta and his deputy, Mr Anthony Karbo and a team of officials from the Ministry were on a routine inspection of some roads in the Accra metropolis on Friday when they chanced upon Mr Addo busily preparing the land to begin his concrete works even though officials of the Department of Urban Roads had earlier warned him to stop.
Not happy with the situation, the Minister ordered him to stop work and directed the Urban Roads Department to investigate the circumstances under which the permit was issued to him and bring the people responsible to book.
“Who ever issued this permit must not be left off the hook, this government under the watch of the President would not allow such reckless acts to go unpunished,” he added.
Mr Amoako-Atta said the local authorities were giving the ministry too much headache, because any one they issued permits to thought he had to build whether the area was designated for a particular use or not “and whoever granted this permit must answer for it.”
He said the ministry would not hold the developer responsible but the local government official who issued him the permit, because he was not thinking about the future of the country, “what legacy are we going to leave for the future generation,” he queried.
The Minister charged developers to seek clearance from the ministry and its agencies before putting up any structure close to roads because no compensation would be paid when the roads were to be expanded.
In a related development, Mr Amoako-Atta commended Messrs Zhongmei Engineering Group for creating more access roads to ease traffic congestion at Pokuase and urged the contractor to continue with that pace of work to ensure that the project was completed ahead of schedule.
By Lawrence Vomafa-Akpalu
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