The Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (GARCC) has reinforced its ban on the operations of tricycles, popularly known as ‘Pragyia’ and ‘Aboboyaa’, on some principal streets of Accra.
The affected areas, according to a Daily Graphic report, include the Central Business Districts (CBDs) of the Accra and Tema Metropolitan Assemblies, as well as the Krowor, Korle Klottey, La Dade-Kotopon and the La Nkwantanang Madina CBDs.
The rest are the Ayawaso East, Ayawaso West, Ayawaso Central, Ayawaso North, Ledzokuku, Okaikwei North and Adentan Municipal Assemblies. The ban, the story continued, was in line with regulation 128 (1-4) of the Road Traffic Regulations 2012 which states that: “The licensing authority shall not register a motorcycle to carry a fare-paying passenger.”
Though ‘Pragia’ or ‘Aboboya’ have created employment for our teeming youth, The Chronicle does not think it is a good transport service that we should be encouraging. It should rather be deployed to the rural areas to transport goods from one short distance to the other. Unfortunately, the authorities have allowed its deployment in big cities, which is now creating problems for some of the local assemblies.
Just last week, there was chaos on the streets of Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, after the Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) made an attempt to prevent tricycle riders from accessing the main Central Business District. To these tricycle riders, the KMA was trying to deprive them of their daily bread and they would not allow that to happen.
Obviously, one cannot blame the protesting riders, because the KMA sat down and allowed them to extend their services to the Central Business District without any restraint.
At Ho, in the Volta Region, the ‘Pragia’ is what is operating as the main commercial transport in the city. Kumasi is not there yet, but in a few years, if not months to come, all taxis in the Garden City will be ‘Pragia’.
Interestingly, all these developments are happening at the time there is a law that bans motorcycles from carrying fare-paying passengers. In India, where the ‘Pragia’ business was imported from, the streets are disorderly and chaotic. Is this a good practice for us to copy in Ghana?
In our opinion, it is good the AMA and the Municipal assemblies in Accra have started flexing their muscles, regarding the subject matter. Fortunately for them, the ‘Pragia’ as a means of transport is not popular in Accra, as we are witnessing in Ho, Kumasi and other regional capitals. These assemblies must, therefore, put their feet down and refuse any bait that will allow these tricycle riders to ply the busy roads and streets in the national capital.
But whilst making the efforts to ban motorcycles carrying passengers for a fee in the Accra Metropolis, the authorities must also not take their eyes off the ball, when it comes to tricycles that carry refuse.
These tricycles, loaded with garbage, do not have tail lights or driving mirrors among others. When they want to change lanes, they do so in a dangerous manner, because they do not have side mirrors to determine whether a car is following them or not.
We need to check this before it starts developing into something else on our roads. We admit that the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council some time ago warned tricycle riders carrying refuse to stop using the major streets in Accra, but it appears to us that they have ignored the caution. A word to the wise is enough!
