We will audit toll booths in the country - Roads Minister

The Ministry of Roads and Highways says it will soon audit all toll booths across the country to ascertain their conditions and relevance.

Mr Kwasi Amoako-Atta, the sector Minister said that had become necessary because many of the toll booths were now public nuisance, creating a lot of traffic and causing an undue delay to commuters.

He said the Ministry together with the Ghana Highway Authority would next week set up a committee to commence auditing all the booths to enable it to take an informed decision.

The Minister said this when he toured some road projects in the Greater Accra Region.

He said: "I have personally been worried about toll booths and within the next few weeks we are going to deal with the problem associated with toll booths holistically. There are so many challenges. These are places we raise revenue and I am sensitive to public concern and demand and I think members of the public cannot be wrong."

Ghana currently has about 38 toll booths cited on major highways across the country.

Government in 2019 raked in about GHS 1.8m from 36 toll booths across the country.

However, in recent times, there have been calls for the removal of some toll booths on certain highways which the public believed had become a nuisance to road users, to ensure the free-flow of traffic.

Mr Amoako-Atta said even though the state generated a lot of revenue from the various toll booths across the country, the safety of the public, as well as their comfort, was paramount.

He added that while some were in a bad state with poor sanitary conditions, others had had the communities around them developed thereby creating vehicular traffic.

The Minster was optimistic that auditing the toll booths would enable the Ministry and the Ghana Highway Authority to take the required steps to address the nuisance and bring sanity, safety and comfort to road users.

"At times you get to a toll booth and people have to suffer to pay the toll. It is not the best and I associate myself with the worries and concerns of the public and we, as a ministry responsible for it must do something about it. Why should we subject Ghanaians, the people of this country to hardships, inconveniences, suffering before they pay their toll?" the Minister asked.

The Minister in November 2020, ordered the temporal closure of the Kubease toll booth, near Boankra on the Accra-Kumasi for creating inconvenience to commuters.

He tasked the Ghana Highway Authority to improve the conditions of the Oyibi toll booth on the Oyibi-Dodowa road in the Kpone Katamanso Municipality to avert any unforeseen circumstances.