Refuse collecting tricycles starting next year February 1, 2022, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Henry Quartey has directed that all motorised tricycles should keep away from all major highways and principal streets and restrict their operations to community riding.
He has however added that “effective November 1st, 2021, no motorised tricycle should ply the motorway”. “This three-month grace period is to ensure that proper education and sensitisation is done to ensure the successful implementation of the directive”. These directives were contained in a speech by the minister during the lunch of the Operation Clean your Frontage in Accra.
The ban on the refuse collecting tricycles is in line with road traffic regulations banning the use of tricycles. Regulation 128 (1-4) of the Road Traffic Regulations 2012 states, inter alia: “The licensing authority shall not register a motorcycle to carry a fare-paying passenger.”
According to the regional minister he has observed that most of the refuse collecting tricycles were used for refuse collection activities but had no proper disposing mechanisms.
This led to most refuse collecting tricycles dumping refuse along principal streets, thereby adding to the already existing insanitary situation in the region.
Introducing the directives he added will help regulate their activities. In order not to create a situation that would lead to unemployment, he said, waste management companies had been contacted to have transfer sites in their respective assemblies to enable the tricycles to continue to operate.
In line with that, he said, the GARCC was liaising with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to set up zonal registration centres in the assemblies to register all tricycles in the region.
”All users of aboboyaa will be registered in their respective assemblies. They will be given riders’ licenses, while their tricycles will be insured. The assemblies will also provide them with business operating permits.
“We are allowing a grace period of almost 90 days for all these processes to be completed, while we embark on a massive sensitisation programme, so that we can ensure strict compliance when the directive is implemented,” Mr Quartey said.