Residents demand relocation of Kasoa toll booth over traffic congestion
Residents of Kasoa in the Awutu Senya East Municipal District of the Central Region are calling for the relocation of the Kasoa toll booth.
The unhappy residents say the toll booth has become an albatross around their necks as they are forced to endure long hours of traffic daily due to the toll booth’s current position.
The residents have said they will petition the Roads and Highways Ministry and other related institutions to make their grievances known to ensure that the necessary steps are taken to relocate the facility.
“The situation of the toll-booth has become an albatross around the necks of Kasoa residents who are forced to endure hours of traffic before they get to work in the mornings, with many working in Central Accra and other parts of Greater Accra, and another equally painful experience of going through traffic in the evenings before they get home from work,” Ebenezer Ofosu Yalley the convener of the Coalition Against Kasoa Toll-booth said in a letter to Citi News.
Read excepts of the letter below:
The idea behind the choice of the location clearly points out a flawed decision since the toll-booth is at an area bounded by a long stretch of hills and a river without room for expansion to have accommodated the growing traffic today.
Economically, residents of Kasoa and other road users who use the stretch of the toll-booth road burn a lot of fuel for staying in traffic for hours just to pay fifty pesewas or one Ghana Cedis at the toll- clearly fuel spent is always more than the amount paid at the toll.
The location of the toll-booth right in the heart of the town has stunted the development of Kasoa into a potentially viable commercial centre as a lot of companies do not see it as a wise decision to site their businesses at areas beyond the toll-booth- an instance which is further promoting a heightened situation of “urban-urban drift”.
There have also been clear cases of negative social and health effects on regular users of the road which goes against the welfare of residents who think the situation of the toll-booth is discriminatory to say the least, as residents in other parts of Accra and its environs who use similar roads do not go through the stress they endure through the Kasoa toll-booth.
It is the conceded view of residents that the toll-booth be relocated to a place farther from Kasoa and its environs as a way to erase the pain and suffering residents and road users go through on a daily basis before going to work and returning from work.
Not the first time
This is not the first time calls have come for the relocation of the toll booth.
In 2015, there was a similar call by residents who said they are forced to spend an average two hours per trip to or from Kasoa due to the traffic congestion caused by the present location of the toll booth.
However, the then Director of Departments of Urban Roads, Alhaji Abass Aworlu said the toll booth will not be relocated but the number of booths would rather be increased from the current seven to an unspecified number.
Source: citinewsroom