Demolish tollbooths or we will do it ourselves – Drivers to government

The government is being urged by the Concerned Drivers Association of Ghana (C-DAG) to either destroy all tollbooths in the nation or start collecting road tolls right away.

The Association claims that the frequent incidents being recorded at the numerous toll booths, which are not now operational, have “alarmed” it.

The Association stated in a press release on Tuesday, September 5, 2023, that “no measures have been put in place to control traffic flow at the various booths since they were decommissioned over a year ago.” The statement was co-signed by the Association’s PRO, David Agboado, and Deputy National Secretary Nana Oweredu.

According to the Association, “the Kasoa and Motorway toll booths have recorded the most dangerous and life-threatening accidents and just Sunday 3rd September, 2023, another one occurred at the Tema toll plaza.”

The association, therefore, urged the government to, “as a matter of urgency, demolish all those tollbooths or take steps to decommission them according to this year’s budget statement presented by the finance ministry.”

“Failure on the part of the government to do any of these may cause us to carry out the demolition by ourselves as we can’t afford to put our lives at risk in the line of contributing to national development.”

Following the implementation of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy), road tolls were abolished in 2022.

However, the road tolls were reintroduced on Thursday, November 24, 2022, at the unveiling of the 2023 budget.

The Finance Minister had said: “The fiscal policy measures to underpin the 2023 Budget for consideration and approval by Parliament include the reintroduction of tolls on selected public roads and highways with a renewed focus on leveraging technology in the collection to address the inefficiencies characterised by the previous toll collection regime.”