Prof. Martin Oteng-Ababio, Board Chairman of the Forest Plantation Development Fund, has called for the development of additional arterial and alternative roads in Accra to help ease the capital’s worsening traffic congestion.
Speaking in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Channel One TV’s Face to Face on Tuesday, May 26, Prof. Oteng-Ababio said the city’s current road network places excessive pressure on a limited number of major routes, creating bottlenecks that worsen delays when incidents occur.
“What we have not done best, from my perspective, is the arterial roads. We all have to use the same route from Achimata to Legon. There’s no bypass that you can conveniently use. If one car breaks down along the way, it has a rippling effect on the whole traffic system,” he said.
He argued that while efforts to expand and improve existing roads are important, equal attention must be given to alternative routes to ensure mobility is not concentrated on a few corridors.
“I think that inasmuch as we try to open up the roads, we should also be concentrating on the arterial roads, the alternative roads, so that we will not all be held in one box, in one road, but we will be having an opportunity to use other alternative roads,” he added.
Prof. Oteng-Ababio also weighed in on recurring suggestions to relocate the capital city as a solution to Accra’s congestion, describing it as a possible idea but not a definitive remedy.
“I think that it’s a possibility, but it’s not an antidote,” he said.
He further stressed the need for holistic urban planning that takes into account the full range of people who live and work in the city
