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Contract for the reconstruction of the Achimota-Ofankor road was awarded to the China Railway Construction company soon after they completed the Ofankor-Nsawam segment of the highway about three years ago by the previous government. Work started in earnest about two years ago after the preliminary difficulties of property owners failing to relocate although compensations had been paid to them were solved. This is part of the road network that it is hoped, when completed, will speedily facilitate free movement of goods from Ghana to the neighbouring countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger which now use the port of Tema for their imports. For the past few months, the Heritage newspaper has discovered to its dismay that work on the Achimota-Ofankor highway has come to halt and drivers and passengers have been left to their fate. The main in the street may not know the reasons for the stalling of the project but government officials may. We are thus calling on them to take the matter up with the Chinese contractor or if possible, with the Chinese government itself. If it is a problem of counter-funding from the government, a means should be found to solve it. If it may also require the government to ask for a complete loan from the Chinese government to complete it, that possibility should as well be explored. We need not point out that the more we delay on this project the more the cost will go high as inflation will eat into it.This segment of the road network is so important to our socio-economic progress that the earlier it is completed, the better it will be for us all. For one thing, it will cut down considerably the hours otherwise spent in travelling to Kumasi and beyond and vice-versa. Any business man worth his salt will tell you that time is really money. For instance, the managing director of Blue Skies, a fruit processing plant at Dobro, near Nsawam once told the Minister of Trade that one of the headaches of the company was the undue delay in getting products to the ports because of the nature of the road. In exceptional cases, they may miss a flight bound for Europe with their products and when such a thing occurs, we may all be the losers for it. The government should therefore see this Achimota-Ofankor road project as a top priority and get it going without further delay. While there is this apparent lull in this road construction project, dust has taken over the property of landlords and landladies in the area and this is a great cause for worry. Every item in every household in the corridor is covered with dust and this is regrettable. We need not emphasize that dust, when inhaled, can cause all sorts of breathing problems including even the triggering of asthma. The company may therefore help out by spraying water on the dusty road from time to time, to abate the nuisance. While we are at it, we may like to advise that the Ghanaian engineers and supervisors connected with the Achimota-Ofankor road project take their work very seriously so that we are not short changed in the long-run. We are sounding this caution because the tract record of China Railway Company on the Ofankor-Hsawam segment of the highway has not been particularly impressive. Already, pot-holes have started developing on the road. Besides, the shoulders of the road were so shabbily done that any fully laden articulated truck leaves a deep gulley after parking there to repair a fault. This shouldn�t have been the case. We are therefore calling on our engineers to be alive to their responsibilities and not let the nation down for a mess of pottage.