Passengers at Yawhima struggle for transportation due to bad road

Correspondence from Bono Region

The people at Yawhima and its environs have been hit with shortages of commercial transport, mostly taxis, resulting from poor road network.

Yawhima is one of the major developing towns in the Sunyani Municipal Assembly of the Bono Region. It is located along the main Sunyani - Techiman Road.

This particular stretch of road has been a major problem, not only for the people of Yawhima and its surroundings but the municipality as a whole.

Though the road has been awarded on contract for two separate occasions, there has not been any significant upgrading on the road. In the year 2015, this single road, which starts from Penkwase Traffic Light, through New Dormaa to Kotokrom and ends at Yawhima was awarded on contract for dualization but only one side of the road was constructed from Penkwase Traffic Light to the entrance of New Dormaa.

Drivers who ply this road had threatened to increase their fares or stop using that road in the evening if nothing is done about it.

Mr Elvis Amponsah, a taxi driver, complained that most of them have to always close at 5:00 pm to go to magazine to service their cars everyday. This, to him, continues to be a financial burden on them as they have to make good sales to their car owners and service their cars as well.

Another taxi driver, Mr Anokye Emmanuel, stated that he does not use that road due to the heavy dust on the road. I have to always go to the washing bay anytime I used that road, he added.

A visit to the fuel stations on the stretch of road showed low patronage of their services. A manager at one of the fuel stations disclosed that he was forced to cut down his workers from six to two in order not to incur debts.

An attendant at another fuel station said they have to always water down the dust which has been another burden on them.

Mr Kwadwo Boahen, the chairman of Sunyani for Development Association, in his assessment, described the road network in Sunyani and its environs as poor, with large portions being dusty and unmotorable.

On Monday, October 7, 2019, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, together with the then Bono Regional Minister, Mrs Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson, at their visit to the site, subsequently re-awarded the road on contract to be completed by August 2020.

It was scheduled to be commissioned during President Akufo-Addo's second day of his working visit to the Bono Region on Friday, September 11, 2020, but that could not happen because the contractor had left the site for months.