If I were the Tamale Mayor

This is what I would do to clear the streets;

The Tamale metropolis is now one of the busiest cities in the country. The city has been congested and vehicular movement has become more difficult, especially during peak periods.

Major streets of the city including the main Tamale Abuabo road through GCB Bank towards Nyankpala, the main Bolga-Tamale Road,

Read full articlethrough the frontage of STC yard towards Vodafone office and towards Gurugu, the road passing through the frontage of Bank of Africa towards the Tamale Teaching Hospital Road as well as the road through the frontage of Access Bank towards the Bank of Ghana and the Picona road, just to mention a few. Most of these roads have been taken over by operators of tricycles, known here in Tamale as ‘Yellow Yellow’.

Traders and market women have also left the few markets we have and taken onto some major streets of the city. This is causing a lot of vehicular and human traffic in the city.

If I were the Tamale Mayor, clearing the streets would be my topmost priority. The former Mayor, Hon. Iddrisu Musah Superior did his best but his approach of only using ‘force’ was very temporal. That was why he failed (in my opinion). Actions like this require diplomacy and a little compulsion since you don’t expect to get everyone to agree with you.

If I were the Tamale Mayor, I would first engage with managers of some major transport operators in the city. I would engage the Metro Mass Transit limited in a conversation on moving them to Lamashegu. Their Lamashegu yard is very spacious enough to contain more than one transport company.

I would persuade them to move there with O.A Travel and Tour. I would then move all the ‘Yellow Yellow’ and taxi operators who operate right from the frontage of Zenith Bank all the way through Agbrisa Koko to Timber Market into the Metro Mass yard and ‘Motor King’ operators into the O.A yard.

This will clear the stretch and make it free for human and vehicular movement. Anyone who wants to travel with either O.A or MMT can pick either a ‘Yellow Yellow’ or taxi from the current MMT station (which will then be a ‘Yellow Yellow’ station) to Lamashegu to take the bus.

This will automatically take away the blockage of the Abuabo road. The rest of the traders can be made to move back into the market, even if it has to be by ‘force’.
The current location of the Timber market is now not appropriate considering the heavy trucks that carry the wood to and from that place and the need to move all the big trucks out of town.

Therefore I would initiate and hold discussions with the leadership of the traders there and create a space for them at a new location. This new location could be the space at the southeast of the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium opposite the training pitch. There is a large space used as a park with a forest reserve around it.

Further discussions could be held with the Forestry Commission to allow part of the forest reserve to be part of the new Timber Market. The space created as a result of the movement of the Timber Market would become another market, “Abuabo Market Number 2”. All traders including the used clothes dealers, who currently sell on the streets could be moved there.

Inside the main transport yard (Bus Stop), further discussions with the Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly could result in the creation of a station for all vehicles moving toward the Bolga road at Kanvili or Zagyuri. Even if the two Assemblies have to engage a private person who owns land there to release it for that purpose.
Vehicles moving towards Yendi and Salaga roads could move to the Kukuo market. The Military High Command can also be spoken to for part of the Old Airport land close to theirs to be used for all vehicles moving towards Nyankpala.

Wa, Damongo, Kumasi, Accra, and all smaller vehicles from GPRTU moving towards the Kumasi road could move to Sankpagla Station. Karaga/Gushegu bound vehicles can also be moved to a new location around Saatingli, close to Islamic SHS.

For vehicles moving towards Kumbungu, their new station could be at the current location of the Tipper Union whiles the Tipper Trucks move to Biwater in Katariga.
The current location of the State Transport Cooperation is no longer appropriate. The STC and the Royal VVIP which is close to the Central Mosque can also move to the Lamashegu premises of the STC which is also very spacious like that of the MMT, while the Royal VVIP station serves as a car park for the Mosque.

Time for the Negotiation

These negotiations could take not less than six months to complete, so I would not wait to finish everything and with every company before I start implantation. As soon as I succeed with one, it becomes a case to use for the other discussions. Because of this, I would start with the state companies such as the MMT and the STC, which I believe would be relatively easy to get their buy-in.
I would also anticipate some form of serious resistance from some individuals and groups, especially the private operators, so the Assembly would deal with those, together with some religious and traditional leaders in the metropolis. These are very respected persons in the city whose wise counsel makes a lot of difference in every aspect of our lives.

Compensations

Moving all these transport companies to these new sites requires some form of funding and both the assembly and the transport companies may not readily have the resources to fund it. However, it is mandatory for the assembly to take taxes or tolls from these transport operators which they pay either daily or monthly. What I would do is to suspend the collection of these taxes from them for one year or reduce it by 50% for one and a half years. The money retained by these companies could be used to redevelop these new sites to fit their standards. A similar approach was used by former President Mahama in developing Terminal 3 at the Kotoka International Airport.

Confining the ‘Yellow Yellow’ drivers into these spaces makes regulations easier and the assembly can easily register them into groups just as they have unions that seem to be dysfunctional.

It also makes it easier for the assembly to collect their taxes from them, making up for the lost revenue from those of the bigger transport companies who have been moved and revenue collection suspended. I believe these could be of essence in reducing the congestion in the city of Tamale.

I humbly submit that these are some ideas in reducing the congestion in the city If I were the Tamale Mayor..but I am no the Tamale Mayor.