Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey is pushing for the revival of the bye-laws to ban all “unauthorized vehicles” from using the highways and principal streets in the national capital.
According to him, the move is to revive and ensure strict compliance and enforcement of the Road Traffic Regulations (2012) LI 2180, for motorbike riders abandoned vehicles on streets, and also ban tricycles (Aboboyaa) from using the highways and principal streets in the Greater Accra Region.
The Minister who is pushing the #LetsMakeAccraWork agenda aimed to decongest Accra of vehicles on the streets and also illegal structures made these known on Friday when he met with the Greater Accra Parliamentary Caucus of both NPP and NDC, Council of State Members, Representative from the Office of the Attorney General, Ghana Police Service, DVLA, Transport Unions, Ministry of Roads and Highways, Waste Management Service Providers, GUTA, Traditional Authority, Dean of All MMDCEs and Dean of all Presiding Members at stakeholder consultative meeting in Accra.
Already the Regional Minister, Mr. Quartey has directed Transport Union Executives in the region to help move commercial drivers to their designated terminals to allow for free-flow of vehicular and human traffic in the city or risk sanctions.
In a recent stakeholder engagement with Transport Union Executives at the Accra City Hall, he gave them a 2- week ultimatum to commercial drivers to adhere to the directive while bemoaning the increasingly alarming indiscipline acts of some of their colleagues.
According to him, these acts of discipline cause a lot of traffic in the city which in most cases prevented the timely arrival of ambulances in hospitals at the peril of lots of valuable lives.
Mr. Quartey said commercial vehicles must load from the terminals and not under flyovers, overheads, and bus stops to ease vehicular traffic in and around the city.
He strongly posited that a court order would be secured to seize vehicles of drivers who are caught indulging in all forms of vehicular infractions that induce traffic, cautioning that offenders who fail to pay the fine within the stipulated time would have their vehicles auctioned.
With regards to the apprehending and sanctioning of would-be culprits, he bemoaned the culture where a call is placed to a ‘big man’ anytime there is an act of indiscipline being perpetuated in the city warning that no biases would be entertained.
“I expect you all to talk to your people. Nobody should place a call when you are caught disobeying the laws because the calls will not work, “he averred.
BY Daniel Bampoe