Stakeholders involved in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) structural plan have gathered in Accra to discuss the plan's final form and solicit suggestions for its execution.
The purpose of the meeting was to make sure that each stakeholder understood and supported the initiative.
The Department of Urban Roads and the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA) were working together to implement the Accra Urban Transport Project, which includes the GAMA project (DUR).
When put into practice, it was intended to promote spatial sustainability in the GAMA and ensure that Accra's physical environment could improve the city's capacity to provide social, economic, and environmental value and well-being.
This study is the culmination of several months' worth of effort that involved consultation with all relevant institutions, organizations, and people.
Participants
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), the Hydrological Services Department, NADMO, and the LUSPA were among the organizations represented, as were planners from the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) of GAMA.
In a speech that was read on his behalf, the Director of the Department of Urban Roads, Mr. James Amoo Gottfried, stated that the combination of land use and transportation had been deemed essential for ensuring sustainable urban growth.
He predicted that when the structural design for the road transportation sector was completed, the focus would shift from a traffic-based approach to one that was mobility-segmented and accessibility-based.
According to him, a review of the draft report on accessibility, connectivity, and mobility revealed a number of goals and recommendations that, if put into practice, would significantly help solve difficulties with accessibility, connectivity, and mobility.
Mr. Gottfried listed a few of the goals, including promoting demand management for transportation, parking strategies that balance supply and demand, promoting and supporting existing road capacity to service new development, enhancing existing road infrastructure, completing the existing road network, and promoting road and street design based on the local competition.
The director of Urban Roads anticipated that once the plan was authorized, all parties engaged in its execution would support it in order to finally realize GAMA's objective by 2040.
The African Development Bank (AfDB), according to Senior Transport Infrastructure Engineer Mrs. Sheila Akyea, was pleased to not only participate in the stakeholder engagement but also to have helped the Ghanaian government, through the Ministry of Roads and Highways, the Local Government, and their agencies like the DUR and LUSPA, develop the GAMA structural plan.
According to her, the problems caused by fast urbanization, such as inadequate infrastructure and services, unchecked urban sprawl, the emergence of slum and squatter communities, poor sanitation, and floods, were lessened by planned, functioning cities.
She said that these contributed to increased social, economic, and environmental degradation.
Because of this, she had faith that the master plan would help with efficient urban planning and improve stakeholder coordination in the urban environment.
Mrs. Akyea stated the expectation that the plan's results will lead the revolution towards successful capital development and serve as a model for other cities both within the nation and beyond.
"The bank particularly looks forward to the collaboration of professionals, academia, land owners and users, and any other stakeholder of interest," she added, and she asked all parties involved to put up an efficient plan to promote the ideas.
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