Government is planning to evict squatters along the Tema motorway to pave the way for the much anticipated expansion of the road.
Chairman of the Transport Committee in Parliament, Kennedy Osei Nyarko, affirmed this to the media.
This decisive move signals the administration’s determination to prioritize infrastructure development despite potential challenges posed by resettlement concerns.
The government has declared plans to transform the motorway into a 10-lane thoroughfare, incorporating eight flyovers at a cost of $380 million. The construction is anticipated to conclude within a timeframe of 36 months.
Mr Nyarko explained that the land earmarked for expansion is presently encroached upon by unauthorized squatters, and sections of it have also been legally allocated to private individuals by local assemblies along the stretch.
In an interview, the Akim Swedru MP, said ample notice has been given to those in the vicinity, thus work on removing them from the area will commence earnestly.
He, however, stated that those who had acquired land in the area legally through local assembly allocations will be compensated.
“You remember some time ago, the minister for roads and highways and I went on some tour around the motorway to engage those people there and advise them to relocate because there will soon be critical work on it [the motorway]. It generated a lot of heat; it came on television and whatnot.
“I mean so already they were notified, those people, the illegal occupants on that stretch were already informed about the intended project the ministry wants to embark on and the advice to relocate. So those people who are occupying those places illegally, I’m not sure they have any legal right of stay on that property. The original owner of that property has come to use it for a project so they have to vacate,” he said.
He added that “People who maybe the assembly may have legally allocated some land to people and they have developed on it, then certainly the government has to pay compensation to those people for them to relocate.
“I think it’s part of the arrangement the ministry through GIIF and the contractor would have to look at it to make sure that those who are legally living there may be as a result of the assembly allocating some land to them and putting up their property on it and definitely their property is going to be affected, then it is incumbent on the initiate to find compensation for them.
“But those occupying there illegally I don’t think they deserve any compensation.”