Tamale, Sept. 7, GNA - Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister, has attributed the poor quality of the country's road infrastructure to the lack of professional competence and capacity of some of the local contractors.

He observed that many contracting companies did not have professionals in the road construction industry to supervise their works, adding that they also lacked the capacity in terms of equipment to execute projects awarded them.

Alhaji Idris was addressing the fourth consultative workshop on: "The Development of a National Transport Policy", organised by the Ministry of Transportation for stakeholders in the transport sector development.

Participants at the two-day workshop were drawn from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions, in Tamale on Thursday.

The workshop aims at the development of a dynamic and coherent transport policy, which would respond to the needs of the people. Alhaji Idris said the Northern Region was faced with peculiar road problems, which had made parts of the Region inaccessible, especially during the rainy season adding: "some professionals, especially doctors, refuse postings to those areas due to the bad nature of the roads".

Alhaji Idris suggested the construction of airstrips at vantage points in the Region to facilitate the provision of essential services such as the lifting of medical supplies and other relief items in times of emergency.

He said the construction of a railway line to link the northern and southern sectors of the country could also help reduce the pressure on road transport.

The Regional Minister noted that congestion on the roads was now a growing problem, especially in the urban environment, resulting in pollution, increased higher risk of traffic accidents and higher cost to the national economy.

Mr Ambrose Dery, Upper West Regional Minister called for the establishment of a "plant pool" for contractors so that the less equipped contractors could hire machinery from the pool to execute their projects.

He said the unavailability of road construction material such as chippings, in parts of the country, was also hindering the early completion of road works and suggested that some contractors should take this as a responsibility to supply chippings to their colleagues who did not have them.

Mr John Koranteng-Yorke a Deputy Director of Roads at the Ministry of Transport observed that the country had no lead ministry to coordinate planning activities in the transport sector to ensure synergy.

He said the development of a national transport policy sought among other things, to develop, maintain and operate an efficient transport system that would support trade and agro-industry in line with the second phase of the Growth and Poverty-Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) objectives.

The policy also sought to transform Ghana into a transport hub for West Africa, promote safety and security in all transport modes, promote non-motorized transport as an intermediate means of transport and increase accessibility and mobility for all transport users.