By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
A delegation of the World Bank, led by its Vice President for Africa Western and Central region, Mr. Ousmane Diagana, has paid an inspection visit to assess the readiness and viability of the Greater Kumasi Metropolis for a Rapid Bus Transit, BRT, system towards easing the canker of heavy vehicular congestion that has bedeviled the area.
It is said that the World Bank is presently supporting about 20 programmes and projects in the country with the Ashanti region being one of the key beneficiary geographical areas.
One of the previous support of the World Bank to Ghana in the late 1990s was the upgrading of the then original Kejetia Lorry Terminal which was recently demolished to pave the way for phase one of the present Kejetia Market complex.
Incidentally, modernisation of the then over one thousand capacity Kejetia Terminal into the current Market complex has rather substantially reduced the capacity to just about 180 without any holding bay for standby vehicles.
The structure and size of the new facility has also led to a constriction of the available space at the Central Business District, CBD of Adum which receives thousands of visitors from all walks of life every day.
This has compounded the vehicular congestion at the CBD particularly as most of the visitors prefer to move in their private vehicles.
These factors explain basically the cause of the difficulty, the quest for permanent solution for which the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the Regional Coordinating Council, as agents of the government of Ghana, are appealing to the World Bank for the provision of a Bus Rapid Transit system, BRT that seeks to assure commuters to and from the CBD of Kumasi of swift mass movement.
The World Bank delegation, which included its Vice President for Africa Western and Central Regions, Mr. Ousmane Diagana and the Ghana Country Director, Mr. Pierre Laporte, was led by the Kumasi Metro Director of the Department of Urban Roads and the Ashanti Regional Minister around the designated road networks for the BRT project.
They include the stretch from Abuakwa in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality to the CBD which connects through the Asafo interchange through the newly created Oforikrom Municipality to Anita Hotel point of the Kumasi-Koningo highway.
The delegation was told that to avoid encroachment on government acquired lands for road and the payment of compensation to squatters in future when expansion of the existing road infrastructure become necessary, all new dual carriages have large medians to be readily accessed and turned into relevant projects such as the BRT.
The Kumasi Metro Director of Urban Roads, Nana Poku Agyeman, disclosed that the roads within the Kumasi CBD have outlived their timespan while a comprehensive transport plan for Kumasi is to be re-developed to meet current demands.
During an interaction with the delegation, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Simon Osei Mensah appealed to the World Bank to consider also financial support for the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to build a multi-storey car park to serve the many daily patrons particularly shop owners of the new Kejetia Market who have been struggling to find secured parking spaces for their private vehicles during business hours.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Simon Osei Mensah, described the Kumasi BRT as very important to the socio-economic development of the metropolis.
He asked for additional assistance for the provision of a modern spacious car park for visitors to the city.
The World Bank Ghana Country Director, Mr. Pierre Laporte assured that the request for a multi-storey car part could be considered under the recently approved 150 million Dollar facility for a transportation system in Kumasi.
The World Bank’s Vice President for Africa Western and Central Regions, Mr. Ousmane Diagana noted that BRT is a new transportation concept his organization is supporting in some African countries and that Ghana’s request would also be considered.