The challenges facing the company running the Aayalolo bus service can be partly attributed to the fact that the previous Mahama government purchased too many buses in excess of what was needed, ahead of the roll-out of the service.
That’s according to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly Chief Executive, Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Board Chairman of the Greater Accra Passenger Transport Executive (GAPTE), operators of the Aayalolo bus service, Nii Adjei Sowah, said the government bought twice the number of buses needed for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system despite an advice against that action from the World Bank.
[contextly_sidebar id=”lCwiY93UKnNhh4KfYzWerxieqDtOgV4M”]The government also exceeded the World Bank’s recommended expenditure ahead of the piloting of the programme on the Amasaman-Accra corridor.
“According to the World Bank, which did a study, the number of buses the central government was supposed to buy to be on the project was around 80 buses or so…Unfortunately, the central government took the decision and bought three times more than the number of the buses at the cost of two-and-a-half times more than what the World Bank suggested to us.”
“So they started the company with too many buses,” Mr. Adjei Sowah explained.
This has also affected the role of the Greater Accra Passenger Transport Executive (GAPTE), he noted.
“When you have gone to buy a bus which is costing so much money, and you expect a private person to come and operate the buses and in the end pay for it and operate it on that corridor, that is very difficult to start.”
The latest challenge confronting the BRT system is a sit-down strike by its drivers.
The drivers say they have not been paid for the past five months.
Though Mr. Adjei Sowah described the strike us surprising especially because the workers concerns are being addressed by the National Labour Commission, he acknowledged that the workers are owed salaries.
“We admit the drivers are owed a couple of months because the company is not generating enough revenue to support its operations,” he said.
The AMA boss also reiterated the operational concerns facing the BRT system, and admitted that the company was “seriously in debt.”
“The bigger issue from my understanding is that we are having serious operational challenges and that is borne out of the fact that the company itself was not properly structured,” Mr. Adjei Sowah said.
About the BRT
A BRT is a specialized bus-based mass transit system which uses dedicated lanes for fast movement within urban settlements.
In 2016 when Ghana’s BRT system began, operations were expected to be on Accra and Amasaman, Accra and Ofankor, Accra and Adentan, Accra and Tema and Accra and Kasoa routes.
It was later christened as the Quality Bus System (QBS) because the proposed BRT system did not meet international standards of having specially designed lanes.
The QBS management noted in 2017 that the programme had been operating at a loss since commercial services commenced in the capital, Accra.
At the time, reports indicated that about 197 out of the 245 Aayalolo buses imported into the country for the QBS have not been used since 2016.
–
By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citinewsroom.com/Ghana