The Takoradi Technical University will in the coming years be building and managing traffic signal systems for the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis. The Faculty of Engineering of the university challenged themselves to design, build and operate an advanced traffic signal system at various road intersections in the city, after the Western Region Minister, Dr. Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah tasked them to find innovative ways of transforming the metropolis and to a greater extent, the entire region, through research, engineering and technology.
Proving their mettle, the university has developed a prototype of a traffic signal system that would be installed at Fijai- Effia Nkwanta Bypass.
Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, TTU, Prof John Bentil who led a delegation to the Regional Minister to demonstrate how the prototype works, hinted that the system will have some essential features to aid persons with disabilities to access road intersections and other pedestrian crossings.
“..for those who cannot see, there will be a sound that will guide them to cross” he stated.
Prof Bentil assured that a sample of the traffic signal system will be readied by end January 2020, for technical review and approval before they kick-start mass production.
Home-grown solutions
The Western Region Minister, Dr. Okyere Darko Mensah has since assuming office championed an agenda that encourages the development of home-grown solutions to issues in the region. Matters of sanitation and health, education, agriculture and human capacity development are featuring prominently under this agenda. In this vein, the Minister is encouraging institutions, corporate Ghana and other individuals to identify peculiar challenges or problems in their communities, and innovate solutions to address them.
He hinted that the Western Region Coordinating Council is about signing a memorandum of understanding with the university’s business department to support the development of local enterprises.
“…this will look at how the districts can be well focused on developing the business sites of the assemblies. That is ongoing with a discussion with our investment center so that when investors come here and they go there, there’s synergy in what is expected of them” he noted.
Dr Okyere Darko Mensah assured of extending the needed support to other promising organisations, committed at advancing the development of the region.
