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Shippers Council to construct freight
parks along roads
Tema, April 4, GNA - The Ghana Shippers Council (GSC) is to
construct freight parks that will contain basic facilities
along the country's roads from the south to the north to
enable haulage drivers to have enough rest.
Mr Kofi Mbiah, the Chief Executive Officer of the GSC, said
this would help address the frequent accidents involving the
drivers on the roads due to tiredness.
He said it has been observed that most of the frequent
accidents occur as a result of restlessness as the drivers
feel sleepy behind the steering wheel due to the long
journey.
Mr Mbiah said the freight parks that would be located at
vantage points such as Nkwakaw, Techiman, Tamale and Paga
would have wash rooms, resting, sleeping and changing
places.
He was addressing the Eastern Region Shipper Committee of
the council during members' first familiarization tour of
the Tema Port.
Concerning the several barriers on the roads, Mr Mbiah said
a study is underway to streamline the situation to
facilitate trade in West Africa.
He advised the shippers to take advantage of their strategic
position in the corridor to transact genuine business by
engaging the services of qualified freight forwarders or
clearing agents.
Mr Mbiah said clearance procedure would be made public and
this would help to eliminate the "Goro Boys" who do illegal
clearing.
Later at a briefing the Tema Port Coordinator, Mr Samuel
Ntow Kumi, said plans are advanced to submit a bill to
parliament to seek the empowerment of terminal managers to
auction overstayed cargoes in order to ease congestion at
the port.
He said by the port law, cargoes staying after the 60 days
grace period should be auctioned but some containers of
cargoes have overstayed for years and the law has not been
applied on them.
He said Customs Excise Preventive Service is supposed to
enforce the port law but apart from vehicles that they
penalize they do not extent it to other cargoes.
The shippers, led by port officials, toured the Golden
Jubilee Container Terminal and the sheds, especially where
their goods are discharged, and expressed satisfaction with
the quality of developments there.
GNA
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