NRSA commends govt for responding to advocacy to dualize Accra-Kumasi highway

Following the publication on the government’s intention to construct four major bypasses on the Apedwa-Kumasi highway and dualize the corridor, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has commended the government for taking that huge step to undertake the project.

The project has been one of the key road safety advocacy issues by the Authority under the ARRIVE ALIVE and STAY ALIVE Road Safety Campaigns rolled out by the Authority in partnership with the media to heighten road safety awareness and influence policymakers and implementers to quicken response to road safety problems.

As announced by the MP for Akim Swedru and chairperson of the committee on road and transport in Parliament, Hon. Kennedy Osei Nyarko, four major bypasses that include; Osino, Anyinam, Anyinasin and Konongo on the Accra-Kumasi highway has been identified and awarded for construction, starting in March 2022.

In an interview with the media on the move by the government, the Ag. Director-General of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Ing. David Osafo Adonteng commended the government for taking that huge step to undertake the project, which according to Ing. Adonteng, has been one of the key road safety advocacy issues by the Authority in the past few months under the ARRIVE ALIVE and STAY ALIVE Road Safety Campaigns rolled by the Authority and the Media to heighten road safety awareness and influence policymakers and implementers to quicken response to road safety problems.

Ing. Adonteng indicated that the move is a giant step in road safety management in Ghana, considering that the Accra-Kumasi highway is the most crash-prone road corridor in the country. Therefore constructing the four bypasses will eliminate congestion and the numerous bottlenecks to improve travel time between the two major cities of Accra and Kumasi and importantly minimize the high incidents of road traffic crashes and casualties, especially head-on collisions that lead to many deaths and injuries.

Ing. Adonteng highlighted that the Accra – Kumasi highway carries heavy volumes of vehicular traffic moving passengers and goods between the southern part of the country and beyond the borders of the country.

Speeds are excessively high on that highway, traffic volume keeps growing every day for all categories of vehicles, especially, Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs), some of which move very slowly due to their heavy loads and in the event impede the movements of other motor vehicles who in an attempt to avoid delays behind such vehicles, overtake without due care for approaching vehicles from the opposite direction and end up colliding head-on, resulting in high numbers of deaths and injuries.

Ing. Adonteng recounted a number of road crashes that have been recorded with such high numbers of casualties within the past two decades on that stretch of road rendering the corridor the highest crash-prone highway in the country.

“This is a very welcomed news or perhaps the best news ever heard by road safety managers and advocates on one hand and many Ghanaians who traverse the corridor because the business will grow to boost the economy of Ghana, travelers and transporters will be relieved of congestion and high travel time and above all, there will be safety.” He said.

He sighted an example with the Nsawam and Nkawkaw bypasses on the same corridor that was constructed during President Kufour’s tenure of office noting that it has eliminated head-on-collision completely on that stretch.

He opined that, in January 2022, alone, Ghana lost 232 citizens through road traffic crashes and 2,924 in 2021 in spite of the growing levels of road safety education and publicity. The situation should change, considering that most of the crashes could have been avoided, if road-users, had demonstrated a little responsibility and safe attitudes.

The Ag. Director-General commended the Minister for Roads and Highways, Hon. Kwasi Amoako Atta, for his commitment to road safety and encouraged the Minister to increase ongoing efforts to dualize the Tema-Aflao, Tema-Akosombo and Kasoa-Takoradi highways to curb the menace of road traffic crashes and casualties in the country particularly incidents of head-on collisions.