Residents of Boankra in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti Region are seething with anger over the delays in the commencement of the inland port project.
Residents want to organize a massive demonstration to register their displeasure about the delays in having the project boost economic activities in the area.
The angry residents told Accra 100.5 FM’s 6:00 am news on Friday, July 15, 2022, that when the government broke ground for the construction of the project during the reign of former president John Agyekum Kufour, many were those who moved to the area to purchase properties in readiness for the take off the inland port project.
They said decades down the line nothing has been seen by way of infrastructure for the project in the area.
The residents said what is worrying is that all the properties purchased in the area by private individuals have been abandoned because of the government’s delays in kick-starting the project.
They said the area has turned into a ghost town because the majority of the youth have left to seek greener pastures in Kumasi and its surrounding areas.
Assemblyman for Wiriso Boankra Electoral area, Samuel Fordjour said they have started the processes to seek the needed permission from the police administration to enable them to register their protest about the government’s decision to delay the project for over a decade.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on November 5, 2022, cut the sod for the commencement of work on the US$330 million Boankra Integrated Logistics Terminal project, popularly referred to as the Boankra Inland Port Project, which has been on the drawing board for some 18 years.
The idea of the Boankra Integrated Logistics Terminal project has been in the pipeline since the days of the Government of the 2nd President of the 4th Republic, John Agyekum Kufuor. In attempting to bring it to fruition, it encountered a number of challenges, a significant one being the exit of the NPP government in 2009.
Cutting the sod for the construction of the Port on Thursday, 5th November 2020, the President explained that the Boankra Inland Port project has been initiated to provide service to importers and exporters in the middle and northern parts of the country, and also to act as a major conduit for the efficient transportation of transit traffic to and from our neighbouring landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
Source: Classfmonline.com
