Mrs Eugenia Gifty Kusi, the Western Regional Deputy Minister, has said there is the need to improve the road network within the Region adding that fixing them is tantamount to increasing the economic fortunes of the country.
“Western Region has become the duck that lays the golden eggs for the country in terms of gold, cocoa, oil and other natural resources and made a significant contribution to the 15 billion dollar the country earned in foreign earnings last year but has very deplorable roads especially in the hinterlands.
“When I was a Member of Parliament and had to visit some communities in the cocoa growing areas, the situation leaves one crying as many of these commodities were left unattended to due to poor road access or no roads; sometimes we see farmers carrying cocoa on the heads and trek for miles to the nearest destination”, she said.
She said fixing roads and bridges in the Region is important to help facilitate work and enhance earnings accrued from the area.
The Deputy Minister said this during a Regional Validation Workshop for the reviewed National Transport Policy in Takoradi.
The Ministry of Transport in collaboration with the other transport sector ministries commissioned a review in July 2017 of the National Transport Policy 2008 to assess the content and details of the policy, implementation efforts, identify gaps within the existing policy and planning framework and recommend concrete actions that could be taken within an updated National Transport Master plan and develop a draft National Transport Policy for validation by stakeholders.
Mrs Kusi said if Ghana is to develop a strong economy, sustainable environment and an inclusive society, then good transport facilities are central to attain them.
Mr Abbey Sam, a lead Consultant and Facilitator from Vision Consult Limited, said the consortium engaged professional bodies, disability groups, political parties, the private enterprise foundation and civil society organisations to ascertain the current road situation in the country.
In the Western Region the situation among others include inaccessibility during the most part of the year, limited accessibility to markets for farm produce, ineffective delivery of health and education as a result of poor transport, limited rail access and non functional rail services for passengers.
Mr Sam said there is the urgent need to ensure that gender sensitive decisions are made during transport planning, well planned transport systems at the district level, the introduction of BRT in major cities and improved coordination between modes.
Other recommendations include the tarring of all roads connecting districts capitals and regional capitals, asphalt roads in district capitals, increase roads network to 70 percent in rural areas and improvement in rail system for bulk transport and fast passenger movement.
Among other strategic goals in developing the Policy would include the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, sustainable development goals and Agenda 2063 by the African Union.
The National Level Development Agenda would absorb government's coordinated programme of economic and social development policies 2017 -2024.
The ten key thematic areas for the New Policy Formulation include: transport for all, Ghana as Transport hub, sustainable transport, improved public and private investment in Transport, integrated and harmonized transport planning.
The rest are legal mandate for implementation of transport policy and plans, enforcement of rules, regulations and standard, research and development, develop human resource capacity and application of new technologies in transport.
Mr Abbey Sam said the validation was to help fine tune the draft into a final Transport Policy followed by a consultation with the Parliamentary select committee on transport before presenting it to government for a white paper to be issued for it implementation.
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