The Concerned Drivers Association of Ghana (C-DAG) wants the government to either demolish all tollbooths across the country or resume the collection of road tolls immediately.
The association says it is “alarmed” by the rampant accidents being reported at the various toll booths which are currently not functioning.
A statement issued by the association, on Tuesday, 5 September 2023, and co-signed by its Deputy National Secretary, Nana Oweredu, and its PRO, David Agboado, noted: “No measures have been put in place to control traffic flow at the various booths since they were decommissioned over a year ago.”
According to the association, “the Kasoa and Motorway toll booths have recorded the most dangerous and life-threatening accidents and just Sunday 3rd September, 2023, another one occurred at the Tema toll plaza.”
It, therefore, urged the government to, “as a matter of urgency, demolish all those tollbooths or take steps to decommission them according to this year’s budget statement presented by the finance ministry.”
It added: “Failure on the part of the government to do any of these may cause us to carry out the demolition by ourselves as we can’t afford to put our lives at risk in the line of contributing to national development.”
Road tolls were cancelled in 2022 following the introduction of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy).
The road tolls were, however, re-introduced during the 2023 budget presentation on Thursday, 24 November 2022.
The Finance Minister had said: “The fiscal policy measures to underpin the 2023 Budget for consideration and approval by Parliament include the reintroduction of tolls on selected public roads and highways with a renewed focus on leveraging technology in the collection to address the inefficiencies characterised by the previous toll collection regime.”
Source: classfmonline.com