The Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako Atta, has advocated the need for the establishment of National Road Authority to coordinate the affairs of the sector.
The establishment, he believed would ensure proper coordination and collaboration of roads activities, management, and proper efficiency of road usage in the country.
According to the minister, it was high time the three agencies, including the Ghana Highway Authority, Department of Urban Roads and Department of Feeder roads, were brought together as one body, adding that the merger would be more cost effective.
The Road Minister revealed this during a stakeholder consultative forum held in Koforidua on Thursday, on the establishment of the Ghana National Authority.
The forum was to enable stakeholders to discuss and share their opinion on the proposal and its corresponding Ghana National Roads Authority Bill.
Stakeholders involved in the consultative forum included experts and management of the Ministry of Roads and Highways, Public Services Commission, Local Government, Members of Parliamentary Select Committee, ranking members, and chairmen of the various bodies in parliament that have oversight responsibility over the roads ministry.
“We do the same work, Highway Authority deals with truck roads throughout the country. The Urban Roads Department deals with the city roads and internal roads and Department of Feeder Roads deals with roads in the rural areas and if we merge it would be good for the benefit of the nation.”
He urged all stakeholders to bring on board their expertise and come up with different shades of good opinions to enrich the proposal for the betterment of the road sector and Ghana as a whole.
For his part, the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Seth Kwame Acheampong, stated that reforms such as the proposed establishment of the Ghana Roads Authority would help leverage the competencies of the various agencies, and would create the necessary synergy which would help improve the operations of the ministry.
“For us as stakeholders and end users in any reform, our primary expectation of this exercise will be for you to have an improved way of doing business which should reflect on the conditions of the roads in our communities,” he said.
Speaking on some deplorable state of roads in the region, the Regional Minister mention that N2 at Somanya, N6 at Bunso and Suhum, and N3 and N4 which enter through Nkurakan and Okorase in Koforidua respectively, Mamfe-Koforidua and Suhum- Koforidua roads were in deplorable state.
He pleaded that under the national financial difficulties, there was the need for the roads ministry to take critical look at the roads and give the maximum attention to help alleviate the plight of Ghanaians in the areas they were found.
FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA
