Sekondi, July 2, GNA-The Western Regional House of Chiefs has called for an improved road network to facilitate daily movement and business in the Region.

The Chiefs noted that the local people kept harassing them for such essential services to open the Region, particularly for rural-urban activities and reduce the delay commuters suffer due to bad roads.

Ewulae Angamatu-Egyan, the Paramount Chief of Bamiankor, who spoke on behalf of the Chiefs during a sitting at Sekondi, therefore, urged the government to ensure a fair share of road development under the Year of Roads concept.

He also called on the government to establish teacher training colleges and universities in the Region.

“Now languages spoken by the people in the Region are not taught in schools. So, we need some tertiary institutions in our Region that will teach our children how to read and write our local dialects,” he stressed.

The Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, in a response to the request, said the government was working to fix the country’s roads.

In the Region, about 1,959 kilometres (km) of roads have been awarded on contract.

He said out of the number 212km are urban roads; 1,155km, are feeder roads and 531km are highways.

“It is rather sad that some contractors have failed to mobilize to the site despite the assurance that they had enough technical and financial capacity to execute the contract.”

He told the chiefs that under the government’s agenda 111, about five health projects are currently ongoing.

He also mentioned the construction of the Shama District hospital and the construction of a new Regional Hospital at Apemanim in the Ahanta West Municipality.

The Minister said because of the upgrading of the Effia-Nkwanta hospital into a teaching hospital, plans were afoot to establish a Medical University in the Region that would use the teaching hospital.

The Minister said the Mpohor and Apowa district hospitals and the upgrading of the Effia-Nkwanta hospital into a teaching hospital would soon begin.

The Regional Minister commended the Chiefs for upholding peace in their respective communities despite the pockets of chieftaincy disputes and appealed to them to sustain the peace.

GNA