Minister says decongestion of market must continue

The Western Regional Minister, Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo, has directed the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) and the security agencies to sustain the decongestion exercise at the Central Business Area of Takoradi to ensure sanity in the metropolis.

He said proper sanitation and free flow of human and vehicular traffic in the major towns and cities in the country formed part of government’s policy of enhancing and sustaining economic growth.

He, therefore, urged them to use every means possible to eject hawkers and traders operating illegally at the inner parameters of the Takoradi Central Market.

Mr. Aidoo said this during a meeting with the city authorities, Regional Security Council and the media at Sekondi to assess the impact of the decongestion exercise the STMA and the Regional Coordinating Council at the Takoradi carried out at the Central Market last month.

He said they should evacuate all traders and hawkers operating unlawfully at the Central Business Area of Takoradi to the Apremdo Market by the middle of this month.

A monitoring team that inspected the decongestion exercise noticed that some shop owners had sub-let frontage of their shops to hawkers and traders who had been ejected, thus encouraging them to operate at unauthorised places.

The team also observed that some hawkers and traders resumed trading on the pavement from 1700 hours while some big trucks offload cassava, plantain and other food stuffs around 2100 hours in contravention with the STMA bye-laws that prohibit heavy truck to offload bulk cargo at the Takoradi Central Market.

There were some big trucks that had also parked on the shoulders of the road, especially frontage of some shops, thereby creating vehicular and human traffic.

The team suggested demarcation of the frontage of shops to prevent illegal trading.

The team noticed that those people eventually move to the inner parameters of the market to trade in the night, thus defeating the purpose of the decongestion exercise.

At the Apremdo Market, the team noted inadequate facilities and came up with suggestions to improve the infrastructure to enhance trading.

Among the suggestions are the construction of drainage to ensure the free flow of water during heavy downpour, creation of pavement and improvement in the lighting system.

Others are the construction of transport terminals, installation of fire hydrants to enable fire personnel to combat fire outbreaks.

The team warned those who had been allocated with sheds to occupy them or would be re-allocated to others to ensure vibrancy in the market.

The Mayor of STMA, Captain Anthony Cudjoe (rtd) pledged to work closely with the security agencies to maintain 24-hour security at the market to sustain the decongestion exercise.