Veep calls for economic use of land

Spread April 12, 2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

VICE-President Aliu Mahama has called on architects and building contractors to make economic use of land space by incorporating basements for vehicular parking and other facilities in their structural designs.
He observed that many structures in the country did not have such facilities, a situation which compelled people to use the streets as parking lots, only to worsen the already bad traffic situation in many areas.
Alhaji Mahama made the call yesterday when he inspected the Defence Headquarters building presently under construction near the Burma Camp in Accra.
The $6.8 million project is being funded by the Chinese government, with counterpart funding from the Ghana government.
The five-storey structure, including a basement for parking and switch rooms, is expected to house the entire workforce of the Ministry of Defence and some senior rank officers of the Ghana Armed Forces.
Work on the project, which occupies 7,610 square metres of land, is 70 per cent complete and it is expected to be inaugurated in October this year.
Workers on the project, made up of some Chinese and Ghanaians, were seen busily working hard to ensure that the project was completed on schedule.
The Vice-President and his entourage took time to inspect the uncompleted rooms.
“There seems to be much land available today but we may run out of it if we do not ensure that what we have and use today is judiciously utilised,” Alhaji Mahama said.
He commended the architects of the Defence Headquarters for their foresight and expressed the hope that many others would incorporate basement designs in their structural drawings in the future.
He said the country had enjoyed friendly relations with China in the past, adding that “these have been strengthened in recent times and we are joyous about it”.
He said China had become one of the pillars of the country’s economic development because it continued to provide funds and resources for key projects in the country.
The Vice-President mentioned, for instance, the Bui Dam project, which, when completed in some six years’ time, was expected to bring to an end the country’s energy challenges.
“The government and the people of Ghana are grateful to China and we hope that this bond of friendship will continue forever,” he said.
Alhaji Mahama expressed the hope that other projects such as hospitals and schools that the Chinese government had promised to undertake for the country would come on in due course.
The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Yu Wenzhen, said China had no regret for its stronger ties with Ghana, stressing that it was the intention of the Chinese government to assist Ghana in any way possible to enable it to achieve its dreams of becoming a middle-income country by the target date it had set for itself.
Mr Yu was of the view that all the projects promised would come to fruition, adding, “All that will go a long way to make the relationship between the two countries stronger and better.”
On the inspection tour were the Minister of Defence, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Lt Gen J.B. Danquah, and other high-ranking military officers.