Looming disaster: Sakumono rail line
Until recently, it used to be an alley, a walkway for pedestrians and bicycle riders across the rail line.
Persons desiring to move from Sakumono Estates to the other side, which is another fast-growing residential area, cross the rail line on foot.
This newly developing area has the Light House Church located there and could be a major reason for increased human traffic, especially on Sundays.
Generally, roads serve as a means of connectivity, allowing for the mobility of goods and people for efficient utilisation of services; but they must be properly planned if they are not to be counterproductive.
For brevity, the alley aforementioned has been converted into a busy drive way, crossing over the rail line at a point barely 500 meters from the Asoprochona Train Station at Sakumono.
From observation, this crossing point needs to be carefully reconsidered (if at all it was considered thoroughly), if it is not to be a recipe for disaster.
As at the time of writing, there aren’t any signage showing that point is an authorised point of crossing a rail line.
Is it possible to know:
• who brought up the request for the crossing to be established?
• who the stakeholders who participated in the discussion were?
• how the decision for authorising the crossing was finally made?
• what roles were assigned each stakeholder in the decision, and if these roles have been implemented?
The above points are a test for participation in governance, tools which are assumed to be undertaken but, in many cases, hardly done and only simply rhetorical.
Maybe it’s simply the same old top-down approach at work.
This article is not an alarm but a stitch in time to save nine.
Mike Mensah.
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