The roads are the Kumeso-New Abirem road, which is 13.10km, Afoso-New Abirem, 1.9km, and Amenam -Apragaya, 2.8km.

The Kumeso-New Abirem road forms a critical portion of the Inter-Regional (IR-003) (Winne­ba-Juaso road) which serves as the shortest link between National Road 6 and Regional Road 64 (Adeiso-Obogu).

These came to light during an inspection tour of the roads by the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, and officials from the Ghana Highways Authority on Tuesday.

It traverses through towns such as Kumeso, Prasokuma, Akrofon­so and continues to New Abirem in the Eastern Region.

The 9.5km Banka -Otuokwai and the 6.05km Juaso- Obogu road which traverse through Juaso to connect to New Abirem in the Eastern Region, with the Ban­ka-Otuokwai road forming part of the network of roads in the cocoa growing areas of Ashanti.

Over the years, the road had fa­cilitated the movement of people and transportation of goods to market centres like Obogu.

Also, the Afoso-New Abirem, 19.18km, and the Amenam-Aprag­ya, 2.80km.

The construction of the roads involved a complete upgrading from gravel surface to a dou­ble-sealed bituminous surface dressing.

Also, inspected was the ongo­ing Konongo bypass which was progressing steadily.

Speaking after the tour, the Regional Minister noted that the Asante Akyem South District was one with poor roads despite being the largest district with most com­munities in the region, and was full of praise for the contractors.

He reassured of the govern­ment’s determination to complete the “critical roads” to open up the districts for food production, and easy movement of people.

At the Konongo bypass, con­tractors still have compensation issues with affected farmers whose properties were within the road corridor and have not received their payments.

The contractors suggested that GHA should speed up the process of validation and payment.

It was gathered that on May 8, this year, the affected farmers invaded the site from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day with weapons, burnt tyres to block the road and prevented works from being carried out.

The Juaso Police had to come in to protect equipment and work­ers as one excavator was badly damaged.