We need rail transport, not relocation of toll booth – Engineer

A road and building engineer has suggested the building of the railway sector to ease both human and vehicular congestion in the cities instead of the relocation of various toll booths in the country.

Mr. Charles Debrah said expansions of various roads to the main cities could also be an option to ease the vehicular congestion on the roads.

The Minister of Roads, Kwasi Amoako Atta was reported to have said that feasibility studies are underway on the possibility of relocating the Kasoa toll booth as part of measures to help eliminate the vehicular traffic bottleneck on that section of the Accra-Winneba highway.

The Minister said the ministry has realized that it is impossible to expand the gates at the booth because of a valley in that area.

Consequently, considerations are underway on whether it should be relocated from that spot.

Mr Amoako Atta said the feasibility studies were not limited to the Kasoa one alone but all such toll booths across the country where such similar vehicular traffic bottlenecks occur at peak periods.

Reacting to the issue on Onua TV’s Maakye on Wednesday, the Engineer said if the Kasoa toll booth is relocated beyond Kasoa, “apart from the lost in revenue, it will increase the population at the new place but there should be road expansions rather than relocations”

“We need to solve that challenge once and for all as a nation instead of relocating the toll booths”.

Mr. Debrah said, “we have indiscipline in the system. We can do four lanes but driver-pedestrians’ behaviour will not make it work because we are undisciplined on the roads”.

He explained that “we board cars anywhere on the road. The problem is indiscipline because even if we move it to a virgin land and the people are not disciplined, it will work”.

He suggested that “the rail system will help us for now so that people will drive to some destinations, park their cars and then join the rail to the towns. That is faster and that will help in reducing the traffic system in the cities”.

He explained that “Kasoa toll booth, if we take it out, still there would be traffic at Mallam Junction. Mallam traffic is more dangerous than Kasoa itself”.