Kumasi: Adum Footbridge Turns Motorway And Trading Centre

A 70-meter footbridge linking two popular business areas within Kumasi Metropolis central market and Adum has now been occupied by a swarm of petty traders, thepressradio.com has observed.

The facility according to checks done by the intelligence team of this news portal www.thepressradio.com has again become a passage route for motor bikes and bicycle riders.

The former nuisance coupled with the latter per the status quo impose an unbearable weight load on the facility during business hours, making it shaky whenever there is an intense foot traffic.

What characterizes the facility at the moment has give room for a number of agitations among concern citizen as some are challenging if the perimeter within which the footbridge which was constructed at the cost of GH 2,229,189.00 is situated falls within the jurisdiction of KMA.

"Things are totally out of order in this area!"one citizen exclaimed.

This journalist at the time of scribbling this story kept wondering if engineers and authorities of KMA are ignorant of the scientific possibility that the footbridge can collapse if the foot load exceeds the capacity of the bridge.

Pedestrians who spoke to this medium contemplated fears to the effect that if authorities of KMA fail to set in motion measures to address the situation, the facility will within the shortest possible time grow weak, leading to a catastrophic outcome.

Others expressed worry over why authorities of KMA have proved weak in ensuring that traders who have occupied the footbridge are totally evicted.

"I sometimes see people pushing motor bikes and even bicycle on the bridge to the other end leading to central market" a pedestrian narrated.

OBSERVATION
When this journalist visited the scene, he was shocked to his bones when he discovered that the facility which was erected to serve as a walk way had been crowded with market men and women.

The foot of the bridge close to Hello Fm was thick with dealers in second hand clothing whiles the path of the bridge was highly riddled and punctuated with different breeds of traders including mobile phone dealers, beggars, coconut sellers, dealers in cosmetics, credit card merchants, dealers in locally made sandals, African wear and a host of others.

These merchants were busy going about their business on the facility in the heat of the day while KMA city guards assigned to the area looked unconcerned.

Per the foregoing, a passerby who identified himself as Michael Ampofo shared his opinion that should any disaster occur through the collapse of the bridge, authorities of KMA should be held responsible following their failure to enforce strict measures that will check the movement of people on the bridge.

He continued that, " it appears KMA has been too over lenient with these traders within the central business district. They (KMA) started on a good note with the decongestion exercise and whenever the exercise was conducted, security personnel were assigned to the footbridge to ensure that such nuisance were out of place. As to why they gave up on that, I can't tell. Whether it's because they fear they may get the traders embittered and loose electoral votes during the upcoming general elections I can't tell but I'm through this medium challenging authorities of KMA to enforce strict discipline within the metropolis and ignore the threats over the possible loss of electoral votes by their party" he advised.