Watch These Things On Nkrumah Circle - Avenor Road

Ghana: Watch These Things On Nkrumah Circle - Avenor Road

Tagged: Business, Ghana, Transport, West Africa

By Patrice Kodjo Amegadzie, 13 July 2012

  The number of vehicles that ply the various routes leading to the Kwame Nkrumah circle during peak and non-peak periods is a sight worth recapturing day in, day out.

The cliché there is time for everything certainly comes into play, particularly if you have ever felt the heat of the scorching sun or have ever endured the annoying moments of being held in traffic for several hours coupled with dust and fumes from some road unworthy vehicles. Patience indeed is a virtue that all motorists must exhibit when the traffic jam hits the fleet of vehicles on one side of the dual carriageway from Circle to Avenor.

 The main cause of the gross indiscipline on this stretch is the practice by commercial bus drivers who stop practically in the middle of the road to pick and drop off passengers, notably during the busiest periods of the early hours of the morning and the rush hours after the close of work.

In that regard, the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service has not over the years relented in its efforts to maintain sanity on our roads and must be commended for their efforts at ensuring law and order on motorways. On that note, what I find mesmerising on this stretch are the dysfunctional traffic lights.

 Gradually, the traffic lights at Kokomlemle, Caprice and at the Alajo /Avenor Interchange are being replaced by uniformed policemen who are flagged by a section of equally competent men and women, predominantly dressed briskly and employed under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP). These folks ultimately have the full backing of the law to direct traffic, check fake registered number plates and licenses, among others, which are all part of the daily routine. In the absence of the uniformed policemen, effective policing does not go on. Hence, some drivers flout the rules indiscriminately, since some of them do not recognise the powers which have been vested in the NYEP wardens.

 Beyond the enormous long-term problems which have plagued this stretch, the very noticeable and visible ones are mainly pedestrians jumping over the fence that separates the dual carriage road even though a foot bridge hangs up in the air with two pivots at the extreme end of the roads at the Kokomlemle traffic light just to ensure the safety of persons who wish to ferry across. However, some hitches have gone unnoticed. What has eluded a number of our hard-working law enforcers is the manner in which some commercial bus drivers put on their seatbelts. 
 With regards to the seatbelts, some stuck the belt into their seats; others just flip it over their heads when they take the wheel without the support the belt provides to lower part of the body primarily the waist line, and for this reason, your guess is as good as mine! The belt pins are not fixed into their sockets. The most puzzling aspect is that some drivers try all manner of means to only put on their seatbelts while a colleague driver hints them of the presence of an officer or when they see the law enforcers a few yards away.

A looming carnage, which is yet to hit the stretch and is only known to a section of the public (mainly the residents of Alajo), is the risk, torment, frustration and thought of being close to death when some commercial bus drivers go the extra mile and do the unthinkable. In an attempt to avoid the traffic jam that plagues the road in the evening and avoid the tarred narrow stretch which leads into Alajo on top of the interchange, some drivers take a quick right turn after Caprice onto an alley road, which many call rough roads. This rough road was created after the reconstruction of the big drainage that was built to prevent the annual flooding which storms Alajo, a suburb of Accra, during the rainy seasons. The alley road is bordered on one side with the wide-open drain and on the other by a host of make - shift stalls, houses and fitting shops. It also has an aging bridge that connects the Alajo Township.

I wished I could just figure out why some drivers, regardless of the risk of falling into this big gutter which holds mainly liquid and solid waste, still gamble with the lives of the loved ones of people who are mostly bread winners and school children, among others, and take this route without second thoughts said Michael Kissi, a resident in the vicinity. The overriding aim of why some drivers use this route is to conserve fuel and go back quickly and cart more passengers.

Even more appalling is the fact that drivers who ply this single alley stretch will have to drive at the extreme edge of the gutter incase there is a stationary or an oncoming vehicle, and pedestrians are not spared.

Also, can you fathom why sidewalks on some parts of this stretch are becoming make-shift washing bays and a sales point for a number of individuals who deal in motor cycles, bicycles among others? What are sidewalks meant for?

The Avenor interchange also runs a shift system right beneath it. Vehicular and other activities will have to come to a standstill when the train takes its turn beneath the bridge; hence, the most intriguing aspect is when some scrap dealers and hawkers take their seats back on the rails when the trains, which are sometimes overloaded do their routine crossovers to Nsawam. In the evening, it turns into a den for thieves who sit high up beneath the interchange on the parts which have been tiled using cement and stone chippings. Some of these thieves attack all manner of people, irrespective of age or gender. However, workers in the north-industrial area who also work on shift basis are more prone to such violent attacks. 
The booming level of commercial activities under the bridge right by the railway tracks leaves much to be desired. Therefore, should disaster strike, which we certainly hope and pray against, the government will have to play a key role in using its scarce resources to cater for accident victims and probably reconstruct the area.

Indeed, the short-term mechanisms for curtailing the diverse activities and problems on this stretch are not far-fetched. However, the government of the Republic of Ghana and the Accra metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and other law enforcing agencies will have to acquaint themselves with some of these flaws and recurring problems that are plaguing most of the roads in this country, because with time, they might just worsen.