METRO MASS LAUNCHES OPERATION SHOW YOUR TICKET (PAGE 30)

PASSENGERS on board the Metro Mass Transit Limited (MMT) buses in the Tamale Metropolis will no longer be allowed to ride free on the buses to their respective destinations.
This is because the management of the MMT has inaugurated a new project dubbed “Operation Show Your Ticket” in the metropolis and the entire Northern Region. The project would, among other things, help to check lapses in the company’s revenue generation efforts.
The measure has also become necessary because investigations by the MMT revealed that there was a high incidence of revenue loss in its operations.
The project would ensure that residents and prospective passengers were held responsible for not possessing valid tickets on board the MMT buses.
According to the officer in charge of the MMT Depot in Tamale, Mr Malik Ibrahim Gombilla, as part of the project, a number of educational campaigns had been earmarked to ensure that residents understood the need to pay and acquire tickets.
He said a team from Accra was supporting the implementation of the project.
Mr Gombilla said inspectors and point officers were expected to educate passengers in MMT buses and terminals, as well as the Tamale Central Market.
He further said radio discussion programmes and jingles for the project were being aired on the various radio stations in the metropolis.
The officer also urged drivers, conductors, inspectors and other staff of the MMT to be committed to the exercise.
“If the passengers are well educated it will reduce about 80 per cent of our problems regarding revenue generation. Some passengers are ignorant about the fact that they need to request for tickets after paying their fares,” he observed.
He entreated residents and passengers to support the efforts of the MMT to enable it to offer quality services to them.
The three-member team, comprising Madam Juliet Molisha Ofori, Mrs Adjoa Appiah Cabbold and Mr Kwame Korang, expressed optimism that the project would ultimately help increase the revenue base of the company.
In a related development, the new site for the MMT bus terminal at the Aboabu timber market has been awarded on contract to the Drops of Water Enterprise.
At the moment the site has been cleared and the contractor is getting ready to move to the project site.
When completed, the long-standing misunderstanding and rivalry between the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) and the MMT in the metropolis would be a thing of the past.
Currently, both the GPRTU and the MMT operate from the Savelugu lorry station in the central business district (CBD) and it is envisaged that the relocation of the MMT terminal would ease the congestion at the park and enhance the free flow of traffic at the station.
In May last year, members of the GPRTU threatened to go on strike over what they described as “unfair and unhealthy competition” from the MMT.
Among the arguments advanced by members of the GPRTU was the need for the MMT to reduce the “relatively high number of its buses plying the routes in the area”.