Mr. Robert Sabbah, Greater Accra Regional Vice-Chairman of GPRTU, said the Union would
support implementation of the Bus Rapid Transport System (RTS), but expected Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to initiate human-friendly policies.
He said that the Union had been in operation for many years and would prefer that the status quo remained the same.
In an interview with Ghana News Agency in Accra, Mr. Sabbah said that implementation of the system would affect the work of GPRTU members because their vehicles would not be permitted to ply routes they had not registered for.
He said that registration of their vehicles and routes with the assembly as stipulated in the bye-law was inappropriate and a violation against their fundamental human rights.
"According to the bye-law when you are given a route to ply, there is no way you would be allowed to extend your services to other routes meaning movements would be restricted," he said.
Mr. Sabbah said GPRTU worked in collaboration with OSA, City Express, Metro Mass and preferred that the status would remain rather than restricting their movement.
He reiterated that the infrastructural system in Ghana was not available and the project would create congestion on the roads.
Mr. Sabbah said as transport operators, they were expected to be responsible for the regulation of transport fares, but according to the bye-law the assembly would be responsible for
such regulations.
He explained that these were some of the reasons why the AMA should come out with a more friendly-policy; otherwise their operations would be affected.
Mr. Ludwig Hesse, Infrastructure and Traffic Management Specialist for the Urban Transport Project, said the Project was to transform the transport system.
He said public transport operators were expected to register their routes, drivers and vehicles within their jurisdiction and this would not affect their operations.
Mr. Hesse said, based on this, the assembly members now understood the operational characteristic of the network and collecting the data.
He said this would help the assembly to establish a data base for public transport and begin their responsibility of regulating how the vehicles operate.
Mr. Hesse explained that the bye-law would not prevent any vehicle from operating on other routes, vehicular movement would not be restricted and said that it was rather those drivers without specific routes that would be
restricted in their operations.
He called on officials of GPRTU to corporate effectively to enable the assembly continue with the project.