Joe Gidisu, Minister of Transport (middle) addressing the participants. With him are European commission representative (left), Celestin Talaki, (2nd left) of ECOWAS, Nigerian Minister of State (2nd right) and Alhaji Inusah Fuseini (right) deputy Minister of Energy.
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Monday April 4, 2011.
The Minister of Transport, Joe Gidisu has made a passionate appeal to member states in Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) to accept and implement of the axle load policy without delay.
“The benefits of the implementation of this policy can be fully realized if carried out in a concerted and harmonized manner,” he explained.
Mr. Gidisu was speaking in Accra on Friday at the closing of a three-day ECOWAS Ministers Meeting on “Axle load policy harmonization and project preparation and development unit”.
The Axle Load policies are meant to regulate the weight of loads on long trucks that ply inter-country trunk roads so as to protect the roads against destruction caused by overloading.
The three-day meeting brought together Infrastructure, Road and Transport Ministers within ECOWAS, road infrastructure experts and development partners.
They were expected to agree on an axle-load regulatory framework for implementation in the sub-region.
Such a regulatory framework has become necessary because many of development partners and donor agencies now demand regulations for the protection of road infrastructure as conditionality before advancing funds for road projects in developing countries.
Joe Gidisu, Minister of Roads and Highways, opening the meeting, said the overloading of trucks has been identified as one of the major factors contributing to the rapid deterioration of road networks.
This, he said, was a major concern for the government of Ghana and other governments in the sub-region, saying that the concern was justified because of the fast and premature degradation of roads as a result of overloading.
He said in Ghana a number of measures have been initiated to control axle load, but noted that there have been some challenges in enforcing axle load limits since truck owners, especially those from other countries that transit through Ghana, continue to flout the regulations.
“It has become apparent that the intensity of axle load limit enforcement in Ghana has resulted in the transit trucks from landlocked countries relocating to neighbouring coastal countries where strict enforcement is non-existent. As much as we will not relent in our efforts to reduce overloading, we wish to indicate that this trend raises a lot of concern to the country,” he said.
Mr. Gidisu said “in the absence of an effective rail transport system, road transport will continue to be dominant mode of transportation for goods, services and the people of the sub-region.”
He said the cost of transporting goods in the sub-region is increasing adding that “available information indicates that it costs between $2,500 and $3,500 to mover a 40 foot container from the Tema Port to Ouagadougou and it takes between four days up to two weeks in transit time.”
Celestin Talaki, ECOWAS Commissioner in charge of Infrastructure Development, stressed the need of a harmonized regulatory system on axle load in the sub-region, saying that it would ensure successful implementation and enforcement.
A uniform transport regulatory system, he said, would also promote an effective transport system that could boost regional integration.
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