Kasoa drivers can't increase fares -Alhaji Tetteh

04-02-10
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COMMERCIAL drivers plying the Kasoa-Accra road have defied a directive from the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) and significantly increased their fares following the upward adjustment in road and bridge tolls.
The drivers are now charging GH¢1, instead of 65Gp, from Kasoa to Accra and 70Gp from Kasoa to Kaneshie, instead of 55Gp.
There are corresponding increases in the fares charged from Kasoa to the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and other parts of Accra.
The situation has generated conflict between drivers and passengers to and from Kasoa and outrage from the GPRTU.
Alhaji E.A. Tetteh, the National Vice-Chairman of the GPRTU, has asked the drivers to disengage from the act, since there had not been any announcement to that effect.
“Nobody should increase fares because we have not announced any new fares,” he emphasised, and indicated that the union’s national executives would meet over the matter, having heard the complaints of the public.
The meeting, he said, would also look at the new road and bridge tolls, after which the executives would meet Mr Joe Gidisu, the Minister of Roads.
When the new tolls came into effect on Monday, February 1, 2010, commercial drivers from Kasoa protested by burning tyres in the middle of the road at Kasoa and also stopped other drivers from picking passengers.
The about 45-minute action of the drivers left a large number of passengers going from Kasoa to Accra stranded. It took the timely intervention of the police to restore order.
Some passengers who spoke to the Daily Graphic said they did not understand why the drivers should show total disregard for the law and refuse to accept the old fares.
They said if the practice was not stopped, there would be total chaos, since it could result in fights between drivers and their mates on the one hand and passengers on the other.
On Tuesday, the government explained that it had been compelled to institute the new road tolls because the Road Fund had been over-committed and unable to fulfil its obligations.
It said the new tolls would, therefore, yield the needed revenue to enable the government to undertake sustainable maintenance of the road network in the country.
The Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr Alex Segbefia, said this at the inauguration of a 14-member Road Fund Management Board, which has Mr Joe Gidisu, the Minister of Roads and Highways, as Chairman, in Accra.