THE decongesting exercise, initiated by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) last year to discourage business transactions on major roads and pedestrian lanes in the Kumasi Metropolis, seems to have had little or no meaning to a section of the business community at Alar Bar, a suburb of the metropolis.
At Alar Bar, a section of the business community have totally seized some link roads where they openly display bicycles and motor cycles for sale to the public .
The open display of bicycles and motor cycles on roads and pedestrian lanes at Alar Bar with impunity has now become a norm in the area, thus hindering the free movement of vehicles and pedestrians.
Unlike the Central Business District in Kumasi, where the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly has succeeded in instituting measures and policies that has prevented people from transacting business on major roads, especially at the Central Market, Kajetia and the P. Z. areas, the Assembly seems not to have noticed the operations of the bicycle operators at Alar Bar.
There is always massive vehicular congestion from the Roman Hill area down the link road to Alar Bar and Suame road, creating a traffic jam which frustrates motorists and commuters who use such roads on daily basis.
The situation becomes bad on the main Alar Bar-Suame road, where dealers in bicycles behave as if the roads and pedestrian lanes were constructed solely for their businesses.
Before the decongesting exercise started at the Central Business District at Adum, vehicular accidents, some fatal, were regularly recorded around Kejetia and the Central Market area.
While some of the victims lost their lives without any compensation given to their dependants , others were maimed for life, making them depend on families, friends and sympathisers for their livelihood .
With the vigilance of the KMA Task Force which have succeeded in creating sanity at the Central Business District at Adum since the decongesting exercise started, vehicular accidents have reduced drastically at the area, and massive vehicular congestion associated with the place has reduced.
That is why the KMA should be commended for creating the requisite awareness among a section of the business community whose operations undermined free flow of vehicular and human traffic the area.
While commending the Assembly for a partial success in its decongesting exercise, it is important to draw its attention to the fact that much need to be done, especially at Alar Bar which is close to the Central Business District in terms of clearing the area of the operations of some businessmen and women who have turned themselves into tin-gods by transacting business at facilities created to facilitate free flow of vehicles and pedestrians.
The free flow of traffic, at Alar Bar is important because of the regular accidents that have been occurring there almost on daily basis as vehicles and pedestrians struggle for space.
Just like the Central Business District, where vehicular accidents have reduced considerably due to the intervention of the Assembly, that of Alar Bar could also be brought down considerably if the Assembly makes conscious efforts to create the needed awareness and extend the decongesting exercise there.
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