According to them, the Board must probe the structure and the mode of fuel distribution for the buses.

The Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama, gave the directive when she inaugurated the 17-member board yesterday [Monday].

“The key challenges I found with GAPTE was indebtedness and you would have to look at this.  Why this indebtedness, especially when it comes to supply of fuels?” Hajiah Alima Mahama

The new members were also tasked to to elevate GAPTE, understand the challenges the company faces and work to ensure improvement of the transport service in the capital.

“We want to inaugurate the second Board, the first Board contributed their quota to the establishment of GAPTE, and today, definitely MMDAs have changed, and new persons are coming on board, so we are here to inaugurated the second Board ”she said.

The Aayalolo bus system has been making losses since its inception in 2016.

Having been originally touted as the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), the Quality Bus System (QBS) was rather introduced, following the inability of the government to provide dedicated lanes for the buses, which had been a major selling point of the BRT.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast over the development, the road engineer, Ing Abdullai, was skeptical about the survival of the much hyped bus system.

To him, the system was not “well thought through” before it was implemented.

“If you look at the one that they are piloting now, the Amasaman stretch to Accra; it is absolutely impossible to operate such a bus system. The terminal that they are using now is very small located in the premises of the Amasaman police station. The rapid transit system ought to work in a location where there is a very good car park. If you look at the Amasaman road to Accra, we are restricted with two new district barriers. The road doesn’t have a room to maneuver when you are coming in the morning or evening with about 4 kilometer traffic. The system is not well thought through as at now.”

“I even think the one at Adenta en route to Accra is more flexible because of the lanes and the less restriction on it. The Adenta one has similar restrictions at some small sections. Like when you get to the Legon stretch it has three lanes and one of the lanes could be restricted for the buses.”

Apart from the lack of dedicated lanes for the buses, Ing. Abdullai noted that, Ghanaians were also not ready to embrace the bus system.

“There is no discipline, the roads are not even enough for the system,” he added.

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By: Farida Yusif/Citifmonline.com/Ghana

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