A member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Roads and Transport in Parliament is advocating for over 200 per cent increment in road tolls.
Engineer Kwadwo Aboagye Nyanpon, who is also the Member of Parliament for Biakoye Constituency in Oti Region, said saloon vehicles that are currently paying GHp50 should be made to pay GH¢2 while those paying GH¢1 should be made to pay GH¢4.
The former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) made the call in an interview with Nana Yaw Opare on Onua FM’s Yen Sempa on Friday.
The MP was sharing his thoughts on the deplorable nature of roads in Ghana and how these roads can be improved.
“I was the CEO of Ghana Highway Authority in 2009 under the late former President [Atta] Mills when we increased the road tolls. Since then, prices of goods and services have gone up but the toll remains the same.”
The member of UK’s Institution of Civil Engineers said “the charges on road tolls are inadequate because in 2009 when it was increased to the current prices, the cedi to dollar was GH¢1.20 and now it’s over GH¢5”.
Mr. Aboagye Nyanpon said “it should be increased again. It should be increased by 200% for those paying 50pesewas to pay 2.00 and those paying GHS1.00 now should pay GHS4.00”.
Lack of maintenance
The MP advised that anytime a road is constructed, “2% of total cost of that road should be set aside for maintenance annually” if the road will last.
“If you don’t do that for five years, the amount that would be spent for maintenance would be more than double. It would be between 40% to 60% of the total cost of the road.”
Mr. Nyanpon said “lack of maintenance is the cause of our deplorable roads. We need to maintain them always instead of constructing new roads”.
Inadequate funds
Also a member of Ghana Institution of Engineers, Mr Nyanpon said successive governments did not allocate enough budgets for the road sector.
“We need to allocate more money for the roads because the budget allocations for the sector in inadequate for both construction and maintenance.”
By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|3news.com|Ghana