Members of the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) on Thursday staged a peaceful demonstration to protest against a planned Route Operational Permits (ROP) to be issued by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) under the Urban Transport Project (UTP).
Wearing red arm and head bands the members, mostly mini bus and taxi drivers, chanted songs of the Union and carried placards some of which read, "We are tired of the KMA", "ROP is a killer policy", "Urban Passenger Transport is no solution to congestion" and "Where do you want us to make livelihood", as they matched through some principal streets of the metropolis.
The demonstrators later converged at the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) where they presented a petition to the Ashanti Regional Minister.
The Urban Roads Department of the Ministry of Transport and KMA last week announced plans to issue as from July 2009, a Route Operational Permit which all taxis and intra-city busses would be required to apply for to improve urban mobility as the first phase of the UTP.
The ROP in the long term would require that each commercial vehicle apply for a specific route to ply on and the permit would have a 12-month expiry which would be renewable every year subject to scrutiny.
There would, however, be reserved lanes for only vehicles issued with permits for a particular route and that in spite of the registration of a vehicle as a commercial entity by the appropriate body, a vehicle shall still need to be registered and issued with a permit by the KMA before it could operate in the metropolis.
According to a plan which aimed at reducing traffic congestion in Kumasi, an Urban Passenger Transport (UPT) under which only big busses will operate would be established and strengthened to serve as alternative means of transport within the metropolis.
The plan is part of an Urban Transport Project which seeks to improve urban mobility. The UTP is currently being implemented in 10 metropolitan and municipal assemblies which have already passed by-laws to regulate urban passenger transport services.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency Mr. Issah Musah Khaleepha, Principal Industrial Relations Officer of the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the GPRTU of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said "We have no qualms as regard the issues the so called UPT aimed to address and manage but are sceptical of the issuance and requirements of permits."
He said if the traffic congestion and spatial problems were to be addressed and managed effectively then the causes of the problems should be ascertained, analysed and tackled holistically.
He the approach being adopted under the UTP as contained in the UPT services by-laws could not address and manage the incidence of motor and human congestion effectively.
Mr. Khaleephah said according to research conducted by the GPRTU the problems of traffic congestion in Kumasi were due to the high rate of rural-urban migration, poor city planning, haphazard and disorderly placements of make-shift shops, lack of political will to decongest and move hawkers from the streets as well as lack of parking lots for shoppers and shop owners who have the penchant for flagrantly parking their private cars on the streets and on pavements.
He said his outfit was not against the ROP but its implementation in the wake of prevailing conditions and that KMA should work hard to improve and extend the road networks in the metropolis to make up for both the UPT and other commercial vehicles.
"The KMA should also check encroachments on suburban link roads and also provide more terminal and taxi ranks".
Receiving the petition, Mr. Kofi Opoku-Manu, Ashanti Regional Minister, lauded the demonstrators for the peaceful manner in which they went about the demonstration and promised them that their grievances would be looked into by stakeholders.