Tetteh Quarshie Interchange -Another market in the making

Traders and hawkers have gradually turned a portion of the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange and the area opposite the Accra Shopping Mall into a market.
The traders have taken advantage of a taxi rank on a parcel of land at the place to be offering a variety of services to both the huge human and vehicular traffic at the place.

During a visit last Tuesday, the place, can now be aptly described as a ‘makeshift shopping mall’ where items being offered for sale included cooked food, footware, second-hand clothing, footballs, jerseys, mobile phones and puppies.

While some of the traders sold on table tops others sold their items on plastics spread on the ground. Some of the traders operated from wooden and metal frames fitted with tarpaulin to shield them from the sun.

Some commercial drivers, commonly referred to as floating drivers because they do not belong to any of the recognised drivers groups, have turned the major bus stop in the area into a terminal where they park to load their vehicles and to drop off passengers as well. This is in spite of a notice at the bus stop instructing drivers not to stop at the bus stop for more than a minute.

Traders

While some of the traders would not talk to the Daily Graphic about who allocated the place to them, three persons who offered to answer questions did not want to be named.

One of them, a second-hand clothes dealer, said she joined other traders at the place when she saw them doing brisk business there.

Another trader who deals in footware, said he did not apply to anybody before he started selling at the place and did not pay anything to anybody for operating at the place.

“I do not pay anything to anybody. Moreover nobody has come here to ask me to pay something,” he said.

A food vendor replied in the negative when she was asked by this reporter whether people who sold at the place belonged to any association.

GPRTU

The First Trustee of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Mr Paul Nkansah, said apart from the haphazard parking at the bus stop by floating drivers, they (drivers) did not see the activities of the traders as a nuisance.

“They provide services to people boarding our vehicles,” he said.

According to him, each driver paid a toll of 70 pesewas per day to the La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly, adding that they (drivers) also were responsible for sanitation at the place.

Floating driver

A floating driver, Larry Tawiah, said although he did not belong to any of the transport unions, he operated from the station to help passengers get to their various destinations.

He agreed that the bus stop was not a place for him to park and be picking passengers but insisted that he was nonetheless providing a good service.

“Not all of us can belong to unions, some of us must move around and that is what I am doing,” he contended.

Passers-by/passengers

While some passers-by said the activities of the traders were a nuisance, others found nothing wrong with their presence there, arguing that the traders were providing service to the travelling public.

A resident living along the Spintex Road, Alice Asibi, asked that the traders should be allowed to form a certified group since they were also “helping those of us going to and fro”.

Moses Tetteh, a passenger en-route to Sakumono, however, disagreed with Asibi.

He said there was disorderliness at the place, while the floating drivers who parked at the bus stop compounded the traffic build-up along the ‘market stretch’.

“They must not be here, if we fail to act now, they would be firmly rooted and sacking them would be difficult,” he said, adding that the beauty of the interchange must be maintained.

Another passer-by, Kwame Oduro, agreed with Tetteh. For him, prompt action was needed to drive away the gathering of traders and hawkers at the place.

“We have places designated for the sale of goods and other items. People should, therefore, not be allowed to sell anywhere, I mean we must be serious,” he said.

Municipal Assembly

The La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Director of Works, Mr Valentine Amedo, said the assembly had undertaken a comprehensive programme to decongest the area at the end of this month.

“We have drawn our programme of action for that place and other places,” he said.

The programme of action, he said, included removing billboards that had been mounted on the pavement and the orderly siting of the taxi rank.

By Emmanuel Bonney/Daily Graphic/Gahana