The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (A.M.A.) has begun clamping vehicles found flouting the newly revised loading and offloading hours within the city, as part of ongoing measures to ease congestion and enforce discipline in the capital.
This follows the Assembly’s recent directive, which limits all street loading and offloading activities to the hours between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. daily.
The new time regulation forms part of the A.M.A.’s intensified decongestion enforcement efforts across major trading and business zones.
Head of the Public Affairs Unit at the A.M.A., Gilbert Nii Ankrah, said prior to the enforcement the Assembly had cautioned that any vehicle found contravening the directive would be towed at the owner’s expense and the offenders prosecuted at the A.M.A. Sanitation Court.
“We introduced this time restriction to reduce daytime congestion and safeguard both pedestrians and traders during peak hours,” Mr. Ankrah explained.
He noted that the Assembly had taken proactive steps to ensure public awareness of the new policy before implementation, adding that the Information Services Department (ISD) of the A.M.A. had deployed a mobile public address system across the metropolis to announce the changes in both English and local languages.
“We are not just enforcing; we’re informing. Our ISD officers are broadcasting the new directive daily to ensure everyone understands the rules,” he stressed following Tuesday’s June 24 exercise.
The Head of Public Affairs emphasised that the clampdown forms part of a broader strategy to consolidate the progress made in the ongoing decongestion exercise and to reinforce a culture of order, discipline, and urban cleanliness in Accra.
He disclosed that since the directive took effect, vehicles found offloading goods outside the approved timeframe in areas such as the Central Business District and parts of Makola had been fined.
He also reiterated that the operation would be sustained and extended to other hotspots in a bid to restore full control over urban space usage during working hours.
He urged all drivers, delivery vans, and commercial transport operators to strictly adhere to the designated street loading hours and to make use of approved terminals and off-street loading bays (car parks), as well as designated delivery zones provided across the metropolis, especially within high-traffic areas such as the Central Business District (CBD), to avoid any inconvenience.
