BY ADAMA CONTEH
232NEWS, FREETOWN
The Minister of Transport and Aviation, Col. (RTD) Alhaji Fanday Turay has said that the focus of the Ministry is to ensure the easy movement of people from one place to another, and also the movement of farm products from the provinces to the Capital City by providing trucks for these project.
The Minister was addressing journalists during the weekly press conference organized by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education on Tuesday 24th October, 2023 which was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Minister Fanday Turay informed journalists that there will be a major change in the transport sector. He also announced that they have changed the Sierra Leone Road Transport Corporation (SLRTC) from a public transport operations to a public transport regulatory authority revealing that the new regulatory body is now the Sierra Leone Public Transport Authority (SLPTA).
Minister Fanday Turay went on to disclose that in three weeks’ time, the country will receive fifty (50) 70 seater new buses which will be operating in Freetown. The Minister announced the routes which these buses will solely be used to transport people from one place to another, and it will also be used by school children and Emergency vehicles only. “The buses will operate on a cashless ticketing system, and will be timely and passengers need not to rush to access them“, he noted.
Minister Fanday Turay highlighted the route which these buses will pass through, that they have the West corridor and the East corridor. “Podapoda and keke drivers are the ones that come together and they will also be the ones to drive these buses”, he stated. He also made mentioned that by the. He went on to reveal that by end of March 2024 the Ethiopian Airlines will start operations in Sierra Leone.
Highlighting the number of people that used the Airlines in Sierra Leone in 2022 from January to September the minister pointed out that 9637 passengers that go out of the country and 78437 that come into the country. He continued that between January and September 2023, 97261 passengers traveled out of the country while 84652 traveled into the country.
The Director General of the Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Authority, Musayeroh Barrie disclosed that the challenges Sierra Leone passengers faced while trying to travel out or into the Country, and that Sierra Leone has only three Airlines that come and go out of the country unlike Guinea, which has Fourteen Airlines in and out of the country.
She furthered emphasized that they will work with the Minister of Transport to settle down the issue of competition and to encourage bigger carriers in Sierra Leone.
The National President, Motor Drivers and General Transport Workers Union Sierra Leone, Alpha Amadu Bah revealed that they have paid for 49 drivers that were in prison with the money they get from collecting from drivers and also with the help of Legal Aid. He continued that they are partners with the government of Sierra Leone in addressing the challenges in the transport sector.
