The Metro Mass Transit Company (MMT) is to take over the assets of the bankrupt state-owned Omnibus Services Authority (OSA), while the government will absolve its liabilities of ?3billion, the Minister of Roads and Transport, Dr. Richard Anane, has announced.

He said Government has also picked up salary arrears of staff of the troubled transport company running into billions of cedis. OSA is said to be owing its staff about ?7.2 billion.

However, The Statesman?s checks have revealed that what is left of OSA?s ?assets? are broken down vehicles, non-motivated staff and the company?s big yard. Dr Anane told journalists attending a two-day workshop organised by the Ministry in Accra yesterday that adequate measures would be put in place to ensure that the MMT does not go the way of OSA.

The Minister noted that the reintroduction of the urban mass transportation system was the most effective and efficient means of moving people around. ?The benefits of the use of high capacity public mass transport system are obvious to most of us. It is cheaper to operate, environmentally friendly and affordable to users,? he stressed.

The company, he said, carries about four million passengers per month, and this figure is expected to rise to the nine million mark when the MMT takes delivery of all its buses which will eventually push the number of buses in its fleet to 500 to complement those donated by the Italian government.