I was misconstrued on ‘toll booth-urinal’ comments – Roads Minister

Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwesi Amoako-Atta has refuted claims that he suggested the conversion of tollbooths into public urinals.

According to him, the comment was taken out of context as only a portion of his interview was published.

He explained that the ministry intends to refurbish tollbooth centers to include urinals so that road commuters can use the facility instead of urinating by the road side.

Speaking on the floor of parliament, he said,

“In our programme, we said that going forward we want to refurbish the tollbooth that is at the toll booth centers where we have offices attached and we even have washrooms, we are going to improve upon them and other things we want to do to modernize the tollbooths center. The primary aim and objective for doing that is to advise road users and commercial drivers that if passengers decide to use the washroom some of which already exist, we will make them available so that instead of people easing themselves at the road side which we all know is an eyesore, they would resort to the refurbished washrooms to be used and I think it’s a laudable idea among others.”

The Minister of Roads and Highways directed the immediate cessation of toll collections across the country, effective midnight on Thursday, November 18, 2021, on the back of the government’s plan as announced in the 2022 Budget to Parliament to scrap tolls on all public roads.

Following this, toll booths have ceased to operate yet the structures remain on the roads.

Earlier reports today indicated that the Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, announced that tollbooths across the country will be converted into public urinals.

The roads minister however says the urinals are only part of plans by his ministry to utilize the structures and not an entire plan on its own.