The Board of Directors of the Kejetia Market says the one-week closure of the facility was based on the recommendations of experts.
Speaking on GhanaAkoma evening political show on Akoma FM with Aduanaba Kofi Asante, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the facility, Nana Agyenim Boateng I, pointed out that experts from Avangarde Design Services after investigations recommended that the burnt area be cordoned off to allow for integrity test of the section.
The directive follows a one-week structural integrity test conducted on the facility by the firm, which the facility failed.
Although 32 shops were directly affected by the fire, the closure of the market to business will affect 807 shops.
The expert fears the facility could cave in if proper maintenance is not carried out based on appropriate technical advice.
On Wednesday, March 15, the Kejetia Market extension was gutted by fire through human error at about 4:00pm.
After five hours of battling the fire by personnel of Ghana National Fire Service, National Disaster Management organization (NADMO), among other security agencies, the market was temporarily shut down to business from March 16 to March, 20 and later extended the closure by 7 more days.
This was to provide the management of the facility an opportunity to engage experts to conduct structural integrity tests on the market.
But Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia ordered management of the market to open the market to business while management of the market had engaged experts to conduct checks if the market is fit-for-purpose particularly at the area which was gutted by the fire.
A week later, the expert and Brazilian Construction Firm Contracta, a construction company that built the market, in a report submitted to the Board of the Kejetia Market declared the affected portion of the market by the fire as not fit-for-purpose.
Explaining further that the structure has failed integrity test, which makes the facility not fit-for-purpose, warning the facility could cave in if not properly renovated before use.
The Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kejetia Market, Nana Agyenim Boateng, on the Akoma FM show, stated that “we need to conform to the recommendations”.
The technical assessment team also confirms the firefighting and electrical gadgets installed in the market, particularly the area affected by the fire, have been damaged.
Nana Agyenim Boateng I said the move was to enable them to properly assess the extent of damage to systems including water, mechanical and electrical in the burnt portion of the facility.
By Benjamin Aidoo|Akoma FM|3news.com|Ghana
