Shai hills which is located in the Shai Osudoku District Assembly is known for having lots of hills. This area of the district is made up of hills that is vested with rocks which is good for our construction sector. Moving from Tema towards Akosombo, most of the hills and the mountains are found on the right with plain greens on the left. The twin rock is located at Shai Hills gives it a good scenery.
There are a number of quarries around this area. Along the road is the monkey sanctuary and some forest reserves. There are a few production companies that are into metal production, concrete production, plastic production etc. at Shai Hills
Lately lots of development is ongoing with a number of real estate development companies selling lands and houses. Most of these real estate companies are selling lands only. Some of the lands are serviced plots with most of them un-serviced.
When you look at some of the layout of the areas of some of the real estate development companies it presents a very wonderful and beautiful ambience. You could see well demarcated plans with nice roads, places earmarked for commercial purposes, playing grounds, places of worship, schools, hospitals etc. Unfortunately most of these real estate companies sell the plots of lands to prospective property owners and leave them to do their own development without any guide as to what kind of building to be put up and how it is to be built. Once the lands are sold the owners are at liberty to develop irrespective of the kind of structure and how to build including the kind of material and workmanship.
Even though the real estate developers may have a good layout and intentions on plan, we may end up having ‘unpleasant city’ since no one is controlling the fast moving development. These real estate development companies cannot be blamed much. I think the district assembly should also be up and doing. I know there are lots of challenges from inadequate staff, under resources etc. They should strategize again to ensure proper development control.
I think how much that district charges for construction/building permit is way too high. I once took some drawings of a 3 bedroom with some associated facilities all covering an average floor area of about 150m2 and in all it was going to cost about GH¢2,000.00 cedis for a permit. This I think is on a high side because a similar drawing will cost less than GH¢1,000.00 under within some districts. These high fees deter prospective land developers from going to obtain building permits for their construction.
The assembly can also liaise with the national service secretariat for graduates in the built environment to help them in controlling developments within the district especially the Shai Hills which is fast developing.
Again the district assembly can also advise the real estate development companies to ensure that prospective developers who buy plots of lands from them build appropriately. These companies will have to ensure developers are building under their supervision.
I believe when these are done we will have another good city called Shai Hills City.
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