Rickety vehicles used as commercial vehicles on the streets of major towns and cities in the country will soon be a thing of the past as government readies to procure new vehicles to be used as commercial vehicles.
This was disclosed by Deputy Transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor when she appeared on Multi TV’s political talk show, Majority Caucus.
According to her, government’s decision to clear the streets of the rickety vehicles is to ensure that the country matches up to its current middle income country status.
She noted that the Bank of Ghana has released $ 5 million for works on the Bus Rapid Transit system [BRT] adding that the Metro Mass Transit is also beefing up its fleet of vehicles which she said should hit 1,000 by the end of 2011.
According to the Deputy Transport Minister, water transport is also being worked on to curtail the casualties which occur particularly on the Volta Lake. “MiDA is building 2 pontoons for use by the Volta lake transport. Government has released some money for some water boats to be procured for use on the Volta Lake. Under the CDB facility we are going to build more pontoons for the passengers. We have also procured 8 engines and auxiliaries ones thus making 16 engines to fix the old ones that we have” she noted.
Dzifa Attivor also stated that government is sourcing funding to upgrade the Kotoka International Airport to reduce travel time. She said a multi storey car park will also be built at the airport noting that “all these are being worked on and we are hopeful that once the funding is secured by the second quarter of next year, we will start real work.”
The Transport Ministry she hinted is also planning to put up an executive terminal at the Kotoka International Airport to attract chief executives of giant multinational companies thereby generating some revenue for the country.
The Deputy Minister of Transport also explained that due to the increase in competition among domestic flight operators, government is feverishly putting in place measures to renovate all the domestic airports to meet the demands of consumers. She thus called for private investor support to improve the conditions of domestic airports.