By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
Transport Unions operating private terminals at Atonsu in the Asokwa Municipality of Ashanti have accepted to relocate part of their operations to the newly constructed terminal at Kyirapatre.
This is to address the inconvenience commuters and pedestrians go through while ensuring that the new terminal does not go waste.
Subsequently, the Assembly has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the terminal operators to engender mutual trust and cooperation for the success of the re-location.
The resolution is to avert the use of state security to apply force to eject the transport unions following their failure to comply with previous deadlines.
Among the MoU was that, henceforth, none of the pre-existing terminals should continue to run routes such as Esreso-Kuntanase-Bekwai, Roman Hill, and Bantama-Abrepo.
The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Akwanuasa Gyimah, told them that no further excuses would be tolerated.
Meanwhile, drivers already operating from the Kyirapatre terminal have asked the Asokwa Municipal Assembly to prioritise the completion of the new community market being built near the terminal, not only to motivate higher patronage of the terminal but also to ensure convenience for patrons of the market upon completion.
Similarly, commuters either living or working within Atonsu or the surrounding communities have also appealed to the Asokwa Municipal Assembly to consider their interest in the re-location directive otherwise, they will have to walk about a kilometre before accessing the new terminal.
For more than three months now, GBCNews has been reporting on the refusal of transport unions and commercial drivers to use the multi-million-dollar government-funded modern transport terminal located at the Dompoase Junction at Kyirapatre within the Asokwa Municipality in the Ashanti region.
This new terminal, built as a component of the three-kilometre Ahinsan-Kyirapatre dual carriage, was financed from an AfDB facility with a Government of Ghana counterpart and handed over to the Municipal Assembly for operationalization.
It already has a management team in place and has almost every modern facility required to make it habitable, such as offices, places of convenience, and seating arrangements for the comfort of both commuters and drivers.
Most of the drivers who initially patronised had to leave out of frustration at the lack of vibrant business, leaving just a handful of taxi drivers.
This is because operators of pre-existing privately run transport terminals located at the frontage of the Kumasi South Hospital, erstwhile Unity Oil, and the ‘High School’ Junction had refused to comply with a directive by the Ashanti Regional Security Council to vacate those places.
Subsequent directives by the Asokwa Municipal Assembly were also ignored, for which the Assembly decided to use the state security services to forcibly eject them.
Their presence along the newly constructed highway is also seen as a safety threat to pedestrians and commuters.
Coincidentally, while a team of the Asokwa Municipal Assembly led by the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Akwanuasa Gyimah, and the Police were doing the rounds to get the transport unions to relocate, there was an accident at exactly the entry point to the Unity Oil transport terminal.
It involved a motorcycle which hit a female pedestrian who was crossing from the Roman Catholic Church side of the road to board a vehicle at that terminal.
The combined Municipal Assembly-Police team went to all the privately run terminals to persuade the operators to voluntarily relocate to the Kyirapatre Terminal.
They also visited the new terminal to engage with the drivers already there, as well as the operators of the other terminals, to first appreciate their concerns and decide on the way forward.
Later, at a meeting involving all the key stakeholders, an amicable solution was found as a Memorandum of Understanding was reached and signed by all the parties with their witnesses.
They are the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Akwanuasa Gyimah for the Assembly, and Mr. Yaw Afrifa, Chairman of the Progressive Transport Operators Association. PROTOA, operators of the ‘High School Junction’ terminal, as well as Mr. Samuel Darko, Chairman of Heritage Transport Union, operators of the ‘Unity Oil’ terminal.
