Accra Feb. 28, GNA- A number of road accidents have been attributed to the poor handling of tyres, poor servicing and in correct positioning of head lights of some vehicles, Mr Manus Opare-Asamoah, deputy Minister of Transportation has observed.
To address those factors, the Minister said the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) has taken a policy decision to contract well resourced garages to inspect and certify vehicles before issuing road worthy certificates.
"In this way, a lot of more vehicles could be inspected and certified and also reduce the incidence of road traffic accidents," he added. The Minister said these when he commissioned a 24-hour ultra modern automobile service centre known as QuickFit Services Centre off the Graphic Road in Accra on Wednesday.
The centre, the biggest in West Africa is expected to offer jobs to 150 persons.
Mr Opare-Asamoah said the need to establish an efficient management of motor vehicle service centres with the state of art machines has long been felt in the country.
According to him, even though some individuals had surveyed the motor vehicle maintenance and service landscape, they had not been able to sustain such service centres in the face of continued importation of technologically advanced motor vehicles in the country.
This, the deputy Minister attributed to the current high cost of servicing and maintenance of vehicles that were prohibitive saying that did encourage motor firms to patronise their services.
"The result is the poor patronage of their services and the short life span of new vehicles," he added.
He was happy that the Quick Fit Service Centre was going to operate on a 24-hour basis and handle about 100 vehicles daily and appealed to the management of Quickfit Service Centre to extend similar services to the rest of the regions.
Mr Opare-Asamoah lauded the role of the private sector, saying they should "be facilitated to establish viable economic ventures that would promote economic growth and offer employment to the youth."
Mr Kingsley Agyeman, Board Chairman of QuickFit Service Centre, said two more of similar centres would be established off the Spinet and Tema roads by the end of the year.
Mr Agyeman aka Kingsman said the centre, one of the biggest in West Africa, would offer quality services with its state of the art diagnostic machines.
Mr Emmanuel Nelson Dentu, General Manager of Quickfit Service Centre, said the centre offers services on German and Japanese vehicles. Mr Dentu said some of the services offered also included vulcanising, alignment, air condition repairs and cleaning of vehicles, homes and offices. 28 Feb. 07