<\/p>\n
Speaking on Joy News\u2019 PM Express on Tuesday, he said, \u201cThere are 54 different projects under the new Big Push.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed on what defines the \u201cnew\u201d Big Push, he explained that these are projects initiated afresh by the current administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, the new big push means that they were projects which were not already under contract. We started them afresh,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He contrasted this with what he described as the \u201cold Big Push,\u201d referring to projects inherited from previous governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something we call old Big Push. These are projects we did not promise, but by the time we took office, we inherited,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
According to him, the government made a deliberate policy decision not to abandon ongoing works.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe inherited and are not repeating what we saw in 2017 when we said, ‘ Oh, we didn\u2019t start it. So we abandoned it. The President directed us never to cancel or stop any project, even in the face of difficulties. Let\u2019s keep working with them to address it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He cited stalled projects such as Ofankor and Kasoa-Winneba as examples that have now been absorbed into the Big Push framework.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo automatically, we carried on that as a Big Push, because the problem was that there was no dedicated funding for it,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Providing a financial breakdown, the Minister said, \u201cthe total cost of that is close to GH\u00a215 billion as part of the entire big push portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that, \u201cthe new projects will be about 55 billion. And then the old project, novated, will be about another GH\u00a214 billion plus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Agbodza stressed that the projects are spread nationwide, with some divided into multiple lots for efficiency.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the 54 projects are all spread across the country. Some of them are just a brick of the same project,\u201d he said, citing the Tamale Ring Road as an example.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go to the Tamale ring road, there are three different lots on that plane, but it\u2019s just one ring road; the three different contractors are working on it,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
He said breaking projects into smaller contracts helps manage risk and improve delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could have been one contractor. The one contractor failed. It fails everybody. But when you break it up, the failure might be detectable with a single contractor. We can ask the next contractor to take over that lot,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
On the total number of contracts, the Minister disclosed, \u201cthe big push, yes, it will be 54 plus 23\u2026 54 separate contracts,\u201d noting that some contractors are handling multiple sections.<\/p>\n
He also addressed growing public confusion about the programme\u2019s scope.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe discussion about Big Push is that people are now beginning to see every road project that is ongoing as Big Push,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is not even worth describing, because it\u2019s not as if we are saying when the project is not christened Big Push, it is not important,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Clarifying further, he stressed, \u201cWe are just saying that these ones are priority one of what we want to complete quickly, and then the rest follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEmphatically, 54 projects are the ones that qualify to be called the new big push. And then 23 are old projects novated,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Roads and Highways Minister and Adaklu MP, Governs Kwame Agbodza, has clarified the scope of government\u2019s Big Push programme, drawing a sharp distinction between new projects and inherited ones. Speaking on Joy News\u2019 PM Express on Tuesday, he said, \u201cThere are 54 different projects under the new Big Push.\u201d Pressed on what defines the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":16315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,4174,3817],"tags":[4423,5156],"class_list":["post-16314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-road-and-highway","category-transport","tag-big-push","tag-governs-kwame-agbodza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16316,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314\/revisions\/16316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}