The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has urged the Ghana Police Service to expedite the implementation of its ‘traffitech’ initiative to ensure the security of street lights in Accra.
This comes amidst widespread concerns about theft and destruction of vital components of street lights in many parts of the city.
The Tetteh Quarshie Interchange, a busy area connecting prime roads like the Tema Motorway, Madina, and Lapaz stretch, has also been affected by this issue.
Street lights in the vicinity of the popular Accra Mall have been found with damaged components, with central system boxes’ conduits forcefully opened, resulting in the disconnection of cables. Even those installed in medians along the street were not spared.
Citi News’ investigation revealed that street lights installed under CCTV surveillance have not been tampered with, highlighting the need for enhanced security on Ghana’s roads.
The National Road Safety Authority and stakeholders are eagerly awaiting the deployment of the ‘traffitech’ initiative, which involves installing cameras for road traffic infractions. This system will detect offenders and enable their arrest.
The continuous theft and destruction of street lights have put a significant financial burden on the public purse, as large sums are required for rehabilitation.
Road and building engineer, Abdulai Mahama, in an interview with Citi News, has proposed technical solutions to prevent such incidents, including using proper gauges secured with good padlocks and better maintenance organization by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ministry of Roads and Highways.
“For the engineers, you know we always have the street light target in the specific area, and that’s the place where these unscrupulous humans enter, cut, and draw these cables out. Maybe moving forward, we may have to employ a different technique of securing where we will be assessing for maintenance, so instead of just constructing and leaving the pipes to be repaired in those areas, there must be proper gauges that will be secured with very good padlocks until maintenance is properly organized by the ECG or Ministry of Roads and Highways.”
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