Authority, Stakeholders Discusses Road Rights, Safety

The Addis Ababa City Roads Authority said that the active participation of stakeholders and the public at large is decisive to ensure roads rights and safety, EH reported.

Speaking at a half-day consultative forum yesterday, Authority General Manager Eng. Fekade Haile said that without the direct participation of the society, roads safety could not be ensured by the government's effort alone. Besides making roads durable, road safety enable the nation from expending extra costs for roads repair. Hence, the society is expected to protect roads as own property.

According to Eng. Fekade, realizing the low level of awareness of the society, the authority has been organizing various forums to address the problem.

Authority Roads Management and Protection Sub-Process Head Asmelash Kidane-Mariam also said knowingly or unknowingly, some city residents residents are damping waste materials on roads and sewerage tunnels. Besides affecting road traffic, the dumped wastes are shortening the age of roads. Street vending, lack of coordination between stakeholders, damaging cordons, destroying traffic lights etc are among the major problems to road safety. He also said that collaborative effort is essential to save and prolong service period of roads.

Some participants noted that most of road problems are created due to lack of coordination between the Ethiopia Electric Power Corporation, Ethio telecom and the Authority. Accordingly, the authority should plan and carry out its activities together with other stakeholders. Others also pledged that they would do their level best to engage themselves in road protection activities.

Source: The Ethiopian Herald (EH)