By Sulayman Waan
Top official of Citizen Alliance (CA) has proffered solution for the poor transport system of the country as he blamed the government for not investing enough in the public transport system.
Dr Islmaila Ceesay also a senior political science lecturer at University of The Gambia, told The Voice in an interview that “The Gambia did not invest into public transport infrastructure by building enough car parks that are spacious and sustainable.”
Public transport, he said needs to be regulated and manage so that people who are into the public service industry (commercial drivers) will know exactly there are regulations that they have to follow.
He said the government should also start investing massively into the public transport throughout the country to ensure effective and efficient transportation of goods and service in the country and also to regulate the public transport industry, because public transport is an essential service to the masses.
According to him, in order to address the poor transport systems in the country government should come up with a strategy in diversifying the transport system and construct road and rail.
“Investment on rail transportation should be a long-term plan for The Gambia because the country is struggling to enhance her economy. But for now, we have the river Gambia; we should be having river taxes to transport people to different places along the river,” he pointed out.
He urged the government to introduce river taxis along the river Gambia it would provide employment for Gambians and as well help to generating economy for the state.
He however expressed concern over attitudes of commercial drivers on passengers, saying instead of loading a trip from Westfield directly to Brikama town, some of the commercial drivers will load a trip from Westfield to Latrikunda town, offload the vehicle and take another trip to Tabotoko town before finally load to Brikama town.
Meanwhile, Dr Ismaila Ceesay said: “the frequent traffic jam within greater Banjul Area is causes by poor physical planning because when government was building the roads, they failed to calculate the possible number of vehicles that would be travelling on the roads at the point.”
“The Gambia’s traffic is often congested in the morning and evening particularly between Lamin – Westfield, Westfield – Traffic Light and Westfield –Bakoteh towns in Kanifing Municipalities. We did not build enough roads,” he added.
However, he said CA government will work with local government (area councils) to build modern car parks and parking spaces in order to avoid traffic congestion as well ease public transport.