‘No directive from govt stopping Legon road tolling’
Authorities of the University of Ghana say they are yet to receive any formal notification from the government asking them not to collect tolls from motorists who use the university’s campus roads.
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Until that was done, the authorities said, motorists would have to pay road tolls before they could access the campus.
The Director of Public Affairs of the university, Mrs Stella A. Amoa, made the statement in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, in reaction to the government’s call on the university to rescind its decision to impose tolls on motorists who use roads on the campus.
In an interview with Graphic Online last Saturday, the Chief of staff, Mr Prosper Bani, recalled that the Minister of Roads and Highways, acting on behalf of the government, had indicated that the cost of rehabilitating the university roads could be absorbed into the ministry’s budget, instead of asking motorists to pay tolls.
Mr Bani said the government was ready to work expeditiously with the university on the most effective way to absorb the cost of rehabilitating its roads.
When the Daily Graphic followed up to the Legon campus yesterday to find out if the toll collection scheme had been stopped, it observed that the scheme was in operation.
For instance, a number of motorists had queued from the toll booth near the Legon Sports Complex to the Okponglo traffic lights, paying the road toll.
The university has, since February 1, 2014, been charging motorists tolls using roads on the campus.
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Employees of the university and their dependants using vehicles are, however, exempted from paying the charges.
That decision has attracted widespread condemnation, with two university students filing a suit against the university at the Supreme Court.
Background
Mrs Amoa explained that the university secured a loan of GH¢1.3 million to rehabilitate the Legon roads and it had no option but to collect tolls to repay the loan.
She said the toll was implemented after a feasibility study showed that the university could pay back the loan if the number of motorists who used its roads daily could pay some fee, adding that part of the money so collected could also be used to pay for the maintenance of the roads.
User charges
On February 1, the University of Ghana followed up on its announcement to implement a road toll scheme by which all vehicles entering the main campus and those using the road passing through the Staff Village had to pay a user charge.
Currently, private vehicles pay GH¢1 per entry while the authorities, after a meeting with the Achimota Legon Taxi Co-operative Transport Society Limited and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union of Ghana, Achimota Main Branch, had agreed that members of the two unions should pay GH¢5.00 per vehicle per day.
Taxi drivers who are not members of the two groups, however, pay GH¢2.00 per entry while large trucks delivering goods or passing through the university campus pay GH¢3 per entry.
Meanwhile, arrangements are being made for private road users to make one-time payments of GH¢400 per year; GH¢250 for six months and GH¢150 for three months.
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