The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly has revealed three buildings located at the Adum Blue Light area have been earmarked for demolition to pave way for the reconstruction of the market which was razed by an inferno a month ago.
It follows structural integrity assessments of the structures by the KMA, which recommended their immediate demolition to bring life back to the market.
Refuting claims of ordering the release of some impounded excavators, Kumasi city mayor, Richard Boadi explained the excavators were intended for the demolition exercise.
The buildings, including one owed by the KMA and two other private developers, are expected to be pulled down in the coming days.
“Yesterday, we were going to use the excavators for the demolition exercise. But it back fired. If we had carried through with the exercise everything at the site would have been gone by now. We had planned to go there by 7 pm we start to demolish and by 4 am we will be done, and then start clearing the debris by morning. We have to demolish them but it would come at a bigger cost that where I am worried,” the mayor told David Akuetteh on Luv FM.
While the assembly works to reconstruct the market, some traders continue to erect structures on the land as they claim to be protecting their space from being taken over by the assembly.
The city mayor however indicated the assembly’s readies to support the traders to reconstruct the market under its technical supervision, stating that the KMA is financially constrained to absorb costs for the reconstruction of the site.
“If I am to say that KMA is going to look for resource to reconstruct that building we will get to the same status of Krofrom,” he said.
Meanwhile, the KMA is considering the conversion of some streets within the Central Business District of Adum into a temporary trading centre for the affected traders of the Adum Blue Light inferno.
Mr. Boadi explained the assembly will be meeting with local authorities for a possible conversion of at least two routes into a trading centre.
“We will be meeting the assembly to make some streets redundant for the trading activities,” he said.