TAKORADI NEEDS MODERN MARKET (PAGE 18)

THE Takoradi Central Market, which is also known as Market Circle, is completely overwhelmed and needs some kind of decongestion.
The interior of this popular market of about 200-metre radius is highly congested.
All the pedestrian walkways or pavements have been completely taken over by hawkers and petty/table top traders as well as food stuff and vegetable sellers.
Apart from this, owners of stores bring out their wares and display them on the pavements in front of their stores,worsening the situation.
This has created a situation where pedestrians have to compete with motorists for the use of the roads leading to and from the market, thereby creating unnecessary traffic jams, particularly during rush hours.
About three years ago the then Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly (SAEMA), now the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA),carried out a massive decongestion exercise and most of the traders selling outside the market were relocated to the Apremdo Market.
The Apremdo Market, which is located about five kilometres from the Takoradi Central Market, is a well designed and constructed market, built in the late 1990’s but the traders have virtually abandoned it.
Now, this market is virtually empty since all the traders who were relocated there during the decongestion exercise have found their way back to the Takoradi Central Market.
Those who have acquired stores/stalls and sheds have also locked them and gone back to the Takoradi Central Market.
Decongestion of the market needs political will to ensure its success, since it has been observed that the exercise has been highly politicised, which made it difficult for past governments to effectively implement it.
Takoradi is too big to have only one market. The city needs more satellite markets in the suburbs to ease pressure on the Takoradi Central Market.
Almost all residents of the harbour city and even Sekondi, where there is a market, come to the central market for shopping.
The Takoradi Central Market needs rehabilitation or reconstruction since there are clear signs of deterioration of the facility.
Also numerous fire outbreaks in the market over the years have combined to facilitate the deterioration, and indications are that the market has outlived its lifespan and that something urgent must be done about it.
The Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly and the new metropolitan chief executive need to take the bull by the horns and muster the political will to decongest the Takoradi Central Market to ensure sanity and discipline in the area.
This will also help to minimise, if not to curtail, the frequent fire outbreaks at the market.