Roads Minister hints at reintroducing road tolls in 'digitized' form

Francis Asenso-Boakye, Minister of Roads and Highways, says his ministry has commenced talks with stakeholders about restoring road toll collection in the country.

He said that if tolls were to be brought back, they would be digitized and automated.

The Minister disclosed this during an inspection of the state of deterioration of some sections of the Accra-Kumasi Highway at Dadieso in the Asante Akim South Municipality of the Ashanti region.

The visit is the Minister’s fourth inspection exercise since taking office two weeks ago.

Mr Asenso-Boakye said the need to reintroduce the collection of road tolls was to generate revenue to maintain existing roads in the country.

“Maintenance also means money. Many countries use the revenue they generate from tolls to finance their road maintenance.  But in our case, we have suspended it," he said.

“I think it is a good time to start discussions on bringing road tolls back. At our Ministry we have started the process by engaging stakeholders to bring back the toll collection,” he stated.

Mr Asenso-Boakye, however, advised political leaders not to politicize the Ministry’s move to score political points, but rather regard it as a national development issue.

He said the ministry was committed to rehabilitating the country’s deteriorated road networks and urged the public to practice good road maintenance to ensure road safety.

Before the Minister’s visit to Dadieso, he made his first stop at Ofankor to inspect the state of progress of the 18.1 km Ofankor-Nsawam dual carriageway road project.

The Government of Ghana and Afriexim Bank are jointly funding the over $30 million project, which will be carried out by Maripoma Enterprise Limited, a wholly owned Ghanaian construction company, under a Design and Build Contract with Associated Consultants Limited.

Work on the segment, part of the Accra-Kumasi Road network, began in July 2022 and is due to be completed this year.

When completed, the road network will consist of three lanes, service roads, one interchange, two overpasses, and an underpass.

Mr Kwabena Bempong, Chief Resident Engineer, said a lot of concrete work had been completed, and that the building of footbridges was over 50 per cent complete.

He said two overpasses and one underpass were under construction at Medie, Pobiman, and Amasaman.

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