TRUCK DRIVERS UNDERMINE PORT DECONGESTIVE EXERCISE (PAGE 53)

Story: Rose Hayford Darko

MORE than 200 loaded vehicles spent the night at the Tema Port, despite warnings and monetary fines instituted by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) in its bid to decongest the port, Daily Graphic investigations have revealed.
This defiance by the recalcitrant drivers is thwarting the efforts of the authority to achieve its goal of decongesting the port in pursuit of development and performance improvement programmes.
It has also taken a heavy toll on the performance and efficiency of the port, impeding the movement of heavy equipment and people.
As part of the several initiatives to improve the performance and efficiency of the port, the GPHA has developed a transit truck park to cater for trucks waiting to be processed.
The park has, however, remained underutilised, while the port is congested with loaded trucks waiting to process their documents.
When the Daily Graphic visited the transit yard, it found that the situation had rather become the haven for unauthorised people.
The Public Affairs Manager of the port, Mrs Esther Gyebi-Donkor, blamed transport owners and truck drivers for converting the port area into their garages.
She explained that the authority had acquired land at Tema Industrial Area which would be developed into a parking lot for trucks for a fee.
She said discussions were ongoing with the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the various freight forwarding associations to find permanent solutions to the problem of congestion.
The public affairs manager said other problems to be discussed would include loading of trucks beyond the legal weight and height limits.
She cited some of those trucks that caused severe damage to the assets of the port and on the highways.
The Director-General of the GPHA, Mr Ben Owusu-Mensah, told Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Roads and Transport who toured the port last week that squatters had unfortunately invaded the port area.
Mr Owusu-Mensah said those encroachers had ‘hijacked’ the land space of the GPHA, making it difficult for the authority to expand.
He also recounted the GPHA’s initiated programmes geared towards accelerated development and growth to improve performance and efficiency.
Mr Owusu Mensah said the GPHA was relocating some of the activities previously undertaken in the port to the western area to transform the roads into four lane dual carriageways with a flyover to cope with the current situation.
He said the design was necessitated by the ever-increasing vehicular traffic at the port.
Mr Owusu Mensah said availability of equipment was one area customers were not satisfied with, but gave the assurance that the GPHA had taken a bold step to address this problem on a permanent basis.
He said the equipment maintenance management function had been contracted out to improve performance.
Mr Owusu Mensah said the equipment stock of the Golden Jubilee Terminal and the port operations department of the authority had all been beefed up in recent months to cope with demand.
He said the port reform project, which commenced in 1998, was in its final phase, and it was expected to make the port capable of supporting the development agenda of the country.