By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
Despite the coming into force of a resolution by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) restricting the movement of tricycles within the central business district, the riders remain defiant as they continue to operate to the main Adum and ‘Dr. Mensah’, the busiest and most congested business area.
The defiance is also against a recent appeal by the leadership of the Ashanti Regional Tricycle Riders Association asking the members to respect the movement limitations while dialogue is ongoing.
Last year, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, KMA, which has the mandate of managing Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti region, resolved to reorganize the transportation system in the metropolis.
The resolution was in reaction to the serious congestion within the city, particularly in the central business district, which is having negative effects on human movement and commercial operations.
The decision, which is to limit the movement of tricycles made up of Pragia and Aboboyaa from entering the central business district of the Kumasi metropolis from other parts or adjoining municipalities, came into full force in April this year.
“We’re trying to re-organize transport activities in Kumasi. As part of the process, when we presented our report, it was then that they asked us to add the tricycle operators because gradually they’re also increasing in number and also taken certain locations in the city centre and loading.”
“And so they were restricted to certain radios in the CBD so that is a start to the control of tricycle operations in the central business district”, Randy Wilson, the Head of the Transport Department of the KMA, Mr. Randy Wilson, Head of the Transport Department of the KMA explained to GBC.
“Available data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority indicate that, there are about 26 thousand such motorized transport systems in the Ashanti region with Kumasi alone having nearly 14 thousand Pragia and ‘Aboboyaa’ providing commuters transportation alternatives.
The Public Relations Officer of the Pragia and Okada Riders Union of Ashanti, Al-Asbat Alhassan Sidi, explained, “Currently, in the system, there’s no job. So presently, we have about five or six graduates from the KNUST riding pragia. So, if for nothing, pragia has been a source of jobs for the youth in the system. So if you say you’re restricting pragia, I think the system would be too hard for people.”
“Most of the people in this city prefer pragia because it is affordable and it’s accessible. There are places that taxis and trotro cannot enter which pragia can manouver to enter and when you consider the money, where taxi will take GHC30, pragia will take GHC20”, A
But, implementation of the ban has been met with serious opposition from the operators who consider the Assembly’s resolution as unfair and without prior consultation with them and occasionally, necessitating the deployment of police and military personnel to enforce the restriction.
This also came in with its own problems of physical confrontations between the security personnel and the tricycle operators that led to injuries, arrests and prosecutions.
Nearly four months after the enforcement of the decision, a visit by GBCNews to the restricted areas in Kumasi revealed a complete disregard of the new policy by both Pragia and Aboboyaa riders, whose activities rather appear to be increasing by the day despite the penalties embedded in the Resolution which include a fine of 500 Ghana Cedis for breaches and a confiscation of the tricycles.
The KMA’s transport officer assured that, even though the decision remains in place, the Assembly could be influenced to review the ban if enough compelling reasons are given.
“A decision has been made so if anything has gone contrary to what they do, they should first, they should obey, gather their grievances, write to the Assembly, the Mayor or the Presiding Members and the Assembly will go through it and have a discussion with them and the General Assembly can take further decisions on it based on relevant data”, the Head of Transport suggested.
The Public Relations Officer of the Pragia and Okada Riders Union of Ashanti, Al-Asbat Alhassan Sidi, advised members of the Union to comply with the decision, at least for now, while the leadership dialogues with the KMA to consider alternatives to the restrictions.
Meanwhile, residents of Kumasi and commuters have raised serious concerns about the heavy congestion within the city centre such that human and vehicular movement have been seriously impaired.
Hawkers have taken over virtually every space for easy pedestrian movement with their wares and in certain areas, trading directly on the roads while parts of the single-lane roads within the central business area including ‘Dr. Mensah’, the Kejetia Roundabout, PZ, Unicorn House and along the Kejetia-Roman Hill stretch.
The situation is forcing pedestrians to compete with vehicles for space in the roads raising security and safety concerns.
About two months ago, a female hawker around ‘Dr. Mensah’ was run over by an articulated truck. Incidentally, the number of hawkers doing business in the area has even increased.