GPRTU, AMA meeting ends in stalemate

Page 29: Daily Graphic, May 19, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
A MEETING yesterday to help resolve the rumpus between the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) over the implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) was called off after officials of the GPRTU failed to submit their documented concerns.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashitey, who called the meeting, had asked the GPRTU to submit its concerns on paper as a working document to facilitate the resolution of the impasse.
He urged the GPRTU to also suggest solutions on how to improve the project.
“I believe that we want to work with documents so that we will all be clear in our minds about the issues being dealt with,” he added.
Nii Ashitey expressed the hope that at the next meeting, all the chief executives of the various assemblies involved in the implementation of the project would be present.
The Department of Urban Roads (DUR) is seeking to modernise and streamline Accra’s public transportation system with the introduction of the BRT.
But the GPRTU is opposed to it because it contends that the project will keep most of its members out of job.
According to the AMA, the BRT system would involve comfortable and large buses, fixed transportation routes with designated stops, sheltered stations and all day and night service.
Passengers would have to pay their fares prior to boarding the bus through a formalised fare collection system, instead of to the bus conductors directly, and drivers would have to register as legal entities.
It is anticipated that the BRT buses will reduce congestion and air pollution because they will be able to service more commuters and will not have to wait to be filled before leaving each stop, since the drivers will be paid a fixed amount, instead of having their earnings depending on the number of passengers they carry.
The proposed BRT system, which will be implemented by the DUR, with the support of the Urban Transport Project, is jointly funded by the Government of Ghana, the World Bank, the French Agency for Development and the Global Environmental Trust Fund.