‘Aayalolo’ buses unveiled
Intra-city transportation received a boost yesterday with the inauguration of the Aayalolo bus system for the Amasaman-Accra Central Business District (CBD) corridor by President John Dramani Mahama.
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The buses, with the capacity to take 80 passengers, are equipped with GPS, cameras, television monitors and mobile charging points.
Other corridors to be developed subsequently are the Adenta to the CBD, the Tema Beach Road to the CBD and the Kasoa-Mallam to the CBD corridor.
The bus services on these corridors would be run by private operators under non-exclusive contracts signed with the Greater Accra Passenger Transport Executive (GAPTE).
City transportation system
President Mahama said transportation played an important role in propelling economic growth and sustainable poverty reduction.
Besides, he said, it facilitated the haulage of goods, movement of people and general integration of the rural and urban economies.
President Mahama noted that transport system in Accra was characterised by heavy congestion, particularly during the peak periods, heavy dependence on informal bus services and inadequate facilities for pedestrians.
“Almost 70 per cent of motorised person trips in the city depend on some form of bus transport, which is the dominant mode and uses a third of the road space. In contrast, private cars and taxis provide only a quarter of the person trips but occupy half of the road space,” he said.
Therefore, President Mahama said the government had planned to improve and modernise the road transport delivery system, especially urban transport, through appropriate policies and regulatory measures which would encourage investments in mass transit system to become attractive to all classes of people.
He said the Aayalolo bus system was to help deal with the challenges associated with transportation in the major corridors of the cities, especially the city of Accra.
President Mahama said the Aayalolo bus system would help in diverse ways including the reduction in travel time along the busy corridors which would be a major advantage to workers.
He indicated that the buses would operate on a time schedule, which would enable travelling to be planned.
“The Aayalolo bus service is the beginning of a greater effort to ease the intense traffic congestion in the big cities of Ghana beginning with the Amasaman-Accra Central Business District corridor,” he said.
A number of Ayalolo Bus drivers expressing their excitement after the inauguration. Pictures: EBOW HANSON
No fears
President Mahama assured other transport operators that it was not the intention of the government to make them worse off with the introduction of the Aayalolo bus system.
Rather, he said, it was to complement their efforts in the delivery of transport services.
GAPTE CEO
The Chief Executive Officer of GAPTE, Mr Samson Gyamera, said the service had been designed to improve the general transport situation in the cities.
He said it was also to generate the learning experiences for the system to be replicated in the other urban areas.