afrol News, 12 October - The government of Ghana is set for the battle against congestion in the capital Accra by launching a massive decongestion exercise. The exercise, which aims to rid the city of unauthorised structures as well as ease the flow of people and vehicles, begins on Sunday, 14 October.

The exercise is the third in three years to be conducted by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and it follows hawkers' persistent reluctance to move into authorised structures provided for them by AMA, leaving the government with no option other than demolishing all unauthorised structures in Accra.

All structures around high tension poles and electrical transformers close to the roads are expected to be removed.

The three-day decongestion exercise affects East Legon, Airport Residential Area, Tetteh Quarshie, Dzorwulu, Cantonments and Labone areas of the capital.

According to AMA Chief Executive, Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, about 250 police personnel and 200 members of the Community Protection Unit of the National Youth Employment Programme would be deployed to the said areas throughout the exercise period.

Mr Blankson warned that city authorities would stop at nothing to ensure that there was discipline that befitted the status as a national capital. He described as “regrettable” to see “indiscriminate” erection of unauthorised structures in residential areas.

“The high incidence of illegal structures was depriving the AMA of the needed revenue to effectively carry out its mandate. Hawkers in the city accounted for more than 45 percent of the filth generated and the AMA could no longer tolerate channelling its revenue into clean-up exercises when there were other equally pressing problems confronting us.” he said.

By S. Makalo in Accra, Ghana

© afrol News

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