By Love Wilhelmina Abanonave
The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwame Governs Agbodza addressing the issue of road damage in Ghana, has announced that, government plans to work with the Ministry of Transport to amend legislation (LI 21 80) to allow for the auctioning of excess goods from overloaded trucks, with proceeds going to the Road Maintenance Trust Fund and to increase the penalty for overloading from 5,000 cedis to 50,000 cedis.
This move according to him aims to deter truck owners and drivers from overloading, which significantly contributes to the country’s road deterioration.
To tackle this, Mr. Agbodza stressed that, this approach will serve as a deterrent and help preserve Ghana’s roads.
The Minister emphasized on the GTV breakfast today, January 26, that Ghana invests more in road infrastructure than its neighboring countries, yet our roads do not last as long as theirs. He attributed this to the rampant abuse of our roads due to overloading.
He also cited instances where drivers would bribe officers at axle load stations to allow them carry more tonnes instead of the approved number thereby abusing the roads.
He also stated that, certain times, it is not that, road constructors did shoddy work but that, the roads are being abused daily leading to their short lifespan.
