Some Tema drivers unwilling to participate in Route Registration

Tema, May 20, GNA - Some drivers operating in the Tema Metropolis have expressed their unwillingness to participate in the Route Registration Exercise scheduled for July. The exercise is aimed at establishing a database on public transport routes, terminals and the number of commercial vehicles and drivers operating in the Metropolis. The drivers, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency on condition of anonymit= y, said it was a new way of extorting money from them.

They said the authorities were only interested in formulating policies t= hat would affect them negatively.

Citing examples, they said the embossment of numbers on vehicles, which was introduced some few years back, had not yielded any positive results beca= use neither passengers nor the Police had been checking those numbers. Mr Paa Kwesi Ntsifu, Station Master in-charge of the Biakoye Co-operativ= e Transport Society, told the GNA that they were yet to receive letters and=

information from the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) on the Exercise. Mr Ntsifu said they were prepared to support any policy that would be beneficial to them but the Route Registration Exercise would not benefit members of the Society. He said government should formulate policies that would secure the welfa= re of drivers rather than finding ways of impoverishing them. He said apart from not seeking the contributions of drivers when policie= s being formulated such policies, though nicely presented on paper, are not=

favourable to drivers when they are formulated. Mr Ntsifu said it was about time authorities and the public recognized t= he importance of commercial transport, since it contributed immensely to the=

national revenue. Members of the Community Five and Six Taxi Drivers Union, as well as the Tema North Taxi Drivers Union of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), refused to comment on the exercise, because they claimed they we= re waiting for directives from the Union's regional executives. Mr Edem Nyadudzi, Head of the TMA's Urban Passenger Transport Unit, reacting to some of the allegations of the drivers, stated that the registration was free. Mr Nyadudzi said his outfit was yet to fix the fee for the issuance of operational permits which would be done after the Registration Exercise. He appealed to transport entities to participate and co-operate with the=

Unit for the successful implementation of the exercise. Mr Nyadudzi explained that TMA would use it to endorse the operations of the unions and to also address some of the transportation problems within the Metropolis.