Two days after a downpour in Accra, heavy vehicular traffic still persists on the Kasoa-Mallam highway as a pool of mud from the tollbooth area had rendered some portions of the road impassable.
The situation has also attracted many hawkers and Okada riders who are cashing in on the situation by selling snacks and water to drivers and passengers caught up in the traffic.
The submerging of the Kasoa-Tollbooth and the Block Factory stretch in a muddy pool anytime it rained has been the case for about a decade now, and the situation gets worst as the years go by.
Although attempts had always been made to collect the mud from the asphalt road that has not solved the perennial problem on the road.
Motorists from Kasoa had to divert to the opposite lanes, creating some congestion and chaos on the road.
Drivers were not the only ones affected by the situation as many pedestrians complained of lack of space to walk on the shoulders of the roads due to the congestion.
At about 8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning when the Ghanaian Times got to the Tollbooth area and the Block Factory, many vehicles were stuck in the traffic while some passengers disembarked, waiting for commercial motor riders popularly known as Okada.
At the Block Factory, motorists spent many hours on the road, following the collection of mudslide on one dual carriage way, which was worsened by three heavy duty vehicles that got stuck in the mud at the ATALA warehouse.
Trafficked had to be transferred to the other dual carriage lane creating more chaotic situation for motorists.
In an interview with the Ghanaian Times, Maxwell Antwi, a trader at Kantamanto, Accra said he set off around 6:00 a.m. from his home at Ofaakor, near the KasoaNew Market but his journey to Accra paused at the tollbooth and the Block Factory due to the traffic situation.
“We have been stuck here for more than one hour so I had to alight and see if I will be lucky enough to get an Okada so that I can get to Kantamanto early enough to start business.”
“We go through this unpleasant situation every year and now we are facing it again. For more than five years, during each raining season we see this but nothing is done to solve the problem permanently,” he lamented.
Another commuter, 33- year- old plumber said he was just fed up with the situation, adding that authorities had failed the populace.
He said he usually woke up at 3: 00 a.m. to make it to work in time during the rainy season because of the nature of the Kasoa-Tollbooth and the Block Factory stretch.
In the past, he said the traffic did not go beyond the Tollbooth area but now it had extended to up to the old Barrier before Mallam Junction.
Some students of Christian Methodist School located at Block Factory, of the Kasoa Tollbooth stretch were also spotted at the bus stop of the Tollbooth, popularly known as Tuba junction, waiting for a vehicle to begin their journey to school.
When asked why they were still not in school as at 8:15a.m. one of them, Ayisha Abdul-Karim said she had been waiting at the bus stop since 6:20a.m. but found it difficult to get a bus, as most of the commercial vehicles that passed by were full.
The Ghanaian Times also observed that many commercial drivers, after their journey from Kasoa to Accra refused to return to pick passengers along the streets of Kasoa due to the gridlock.
Usually, the muddy pool on the road, created by the rains causes congestion on both sides of the roads, thereby discouraging drivers from plying the route, and this leads to the situation where passengers get stranded at the various bus stops.
BY RAISSA SAMBOU
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