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Ho, the Volta Regional capital is to get a comprehensive facelift under two major donor supported projects. The projects are the Ghana Urban Management Pilot Project (GUMPP), for a municipal assembly and three metropolitan assemblies, and a Local Government Capacity Support Programme (LGCSP). Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development announced this on Wednesday during an interaction with market women at the Central Market in Ho. He said facilities to be provided under GUMPP include a state-of-the-art modern market; abattoir, roads, verifiable addresses of all properties, a complete reengineering of the city layout as well as solid and liquid waste fill sites. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo put the total cost of the projects for Ho under GUMPP, spanning five years, at about Ghc18,393,772. The Minister�s visit was prompted by agitations by market women over government�s inability to put up a modern market in Ho as promised. Their planned street protest over the issue was however averted by the Queenmother of Ho. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said preliminary processes had been completed to enable Ghana to access the funding from Agence Francaise Developpement (AFD) under GUMPP. He said big jobs such as these needed meticulous stakeholder consultations to produce facilities that were of utmost relevance to the beneficiaries. He said the LGCSP, a World Bank supported project, will provide support for infrastructural development projects across the municipal area. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said the past three years had seen unprecedented development in the Volta Region. He said by the close of the year the current number of 120,000 pupils benefiting from the School Feeding Programme would be doubled. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said there were 500 GET-Fund projects, finished or at various stages of completion dotted all over the Region, stressing that any talk about government not doing much for the Region had no basis. The Minister pledged street lamps to be installed at the market within the next few weeks. Madam Mansah Dagbey, Ho Central Market Queen said her compatriots had felt let down by the government over the perceived delay in starting the modern market and that they wanted promises made by government fulfilled to justify the big support the ruling party had among market women. Mr Joseph Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister and Mr Isaac Kodobisah took turns to brief the mainly market women audience about development projects going on in the Region and the municipal area.