The Concerned Drivers Association of Ghana (C-DAG) has threatened to demolish all abandoned tollbooths across the country should the government fail to do so over its inability to resume road toll collection.
According to the Association, its threat stems from the surge in road accidents reported at the various toll booths, which are currently not functioning.
A statement issued by the association, on Tuesday, 5 September 2023, and co-signed by its Deputy National Secretary, Nana Oweredu, and its PRO, David Agboado, noted that no measures have been put in place to control traffic flow at the various booths since they were decommissioned over a year ago.
“The Kasoa and Motorway toll booths have recorded the most dangerous and life-threatening accidents and just Sunday 3rd September, 2023, another one occurred at the Tema toll plaza,” the Association stated.
It, therefore, wants the government “as a matter of urgency, demolish all those tollbooths or take steps to decommission them according to this year’s budget statement presented by the finance ministry.”
“Failure on the part of the government to do any of these may cause us to carry out the demolition by ourselves as we can’t afford to put our lives at risk in the line of contributing to national development,” the Association added.
In 2022, road tolls were abolished following the implementation of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy). However, road tolls were subsequently reinstated during the budget presentation on November 24, 2022.
The Finance Minister, on the matter, said: “The fiscal policy measures to underpin the 2023 Budget for consideration and approval by Parliament include the reintroduction of tolls on selected public roads and highways with a renewed focus on leveraging technology in the collection to address the inefficiencies characterised by the previous toll collection regime.”