The Ashaiman Main Lorry Station is heavily congested as passengers, vehicles and vendors struggle for space leading to poor insanitary condition.
Ghana News Agency on Wednesday observed that as a result of the congestion, drivers had taken over all adjoining roads and space around the station, parking their vehicles indiscriminately.
Some of the vehicles were parked outside the station for long hours before moving at snail pace into main arena to convey passengers.
Mr Abu Zakari, a Ghana Private Road and Transport Union Station Master at the Ashaiman Lorry Station, told the GNA that due to the congestion some drivers and drivers mate at times fought over the right to park.
He explained that in order to control the drivers, the Union has decided to impose a fine of Ghc10.00 on any driver, who would violate the rules for entering the station.
The Contractor in charge of the station, who refused to give his name to GNA, said he took charge of the station about one-and-half years ago and that he came to meet the vendors at the station.
” I am the contractor managing this place and I have been here for only one-and-a-half years. The vendors here pay tax to the assembly, so I cannot sack them,” he said.
Mr. Christian Lamptey, a driver and secretary to Ashaiman to 37 Drivers branch of the GPRTU attributed the problem to the type of buses and cars that use the station.
He said: “We have big cars and the place is small for us, so we have to park outside the station and wait for our turn before we can enter the station. Sometimes we have to wait for more than one hour to get access into the station.”
A vendor, Ms Cecilia Amoh, also told the GNA that “we pay fees to the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly, which gave us the permission to sell here. We also sweep here every day.
“There are no dustbins here so when they eat they throw the rubbish anywhere.”
At the Kaneshie-Takoradi Station, Mr Emmanule Boadu Yeboah told the GNA that vehicles undergo periodic maintenance to ensure that they are in good condition to travel.
He said some of the vehicles they use in their work are “Yutong” and “Daewoo” buses and they commute passengers to various destinations such as Cape Coast, Takoradi, Ho and Elubo.
According to Mr Yeboah, the busiest time at the station was the weekends when most people travel to attend funerals and visit their families.
“The weekends are our busy days especially on Fridays where sometimes passengers have to wait for sometime before they get a vehicle to their destination,” he stated.
Touching on sanitation at the station, Mr Yeboah said, the waste management company, Zoomlion, collect rubbish once or twice each day.
He said: “we see to the sanitation of this station, we pay GHc60 anytime Zoomlion collect refuse”.
Mr Yeboah said that alcoholic beverages were not sold at the station on the orders of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to prevent drivers from drinking during working hours.