The Director of Building and Roads Research Institute (BRRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has advised government to dualise its major roads to mitigate the surge in road accidents recorded in the country.

Dr Asenso-Gyambibi, speaking on PM Express on Monday said this should be possible because Ghana is recognised as a middle-income country.

He told host, Aisha Ibrahim that calls for the dualisation of roads are imperative since Ghana for the past 28 years has increased vehicles on the roads by 2089 per cent.

"I've said it over again, we need to start dualizing our highways. We have to dualize our highways. We are a middle-income country and we've got to do that

"Do you know that from 1991 to 2019, the number of vehicles on our roads have increased by 2089 per cent? In a space of 28 years, we have an increase in our roads. So if these vehicles are all on our roads and we do not have an effective road infrastructure then there is cause for alarm and these accidents will continue to occur. So we need to dualize our roads and improve them," he said.

According to him, the country has witnessed the essence of dualised roads, hence such a move should not be difficult to implement.

"If you look at the bypasses we have at Nsawam and Nkawkaw, you'd realise that accidents on these stretches have reduced significantly. Gone were the days when we had accidents almost every day at Pokuase in the Eastern Region. Now that these bypasses have come, you'd realize that these hotspots are no longer there because we have been able to dualize them. So road infrastructure is very key," he explained.

His comments come as a reaction to the surge in deaths resulting from road carnages.

Information gathered by JoyNews reveals that twenty-one deaths have been recorded in two days.

Out of that number, 10 persons lost their lives after two buses collided at Gomoa Mampong on the Kasoa-Winneba Highway in the Central Region on Sunday, August 22. Over 42 others sustained severe injuries.

Dr Asenso-Gyambibi has also bemoaned the lack of enforcement by the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD).

He admonished authorities of the MTTD to deploy its officers to road carnage hotspots in the country as part of its efforts to check the menace.

For him, such an intervention will protect the lives of many Ghanaians in the short term.

"Enforcement is something we can do in the short term to curb these accidents. I would wish that the MTTD for the rest of the months ahead of us would deploy their men on our roads, to all the places that we know as hotspots, where drivers are likely to overspeed and overtake unnecessarily, recklessly. They should deploy their men there and check our drivers so that from now to the end of the year, we will be able to mitigate (road accidents)." he said.

He also added that "we should be able to take the manual way of enforcement and move to technology.

"Gradually, we should get there and be able to enforce road traffic regulations through the deployment of technology."

Meanwhile, Dr Asenso-Gyambibi has lauded government for taking measures to make the railway system an alternative for road transport.

He argued that heavy trucks should be taken off the road to make drivers safe and comfortable on the roads.

"I'm happy that government is taking steps to handle alternative mode of transport using the railway system. It is very key. We need to start moving some of our trucks off the main roads, especially the heavy trucks that transport goods from the port to the hinterlands across the length and breadth of this country. They are destroying our roads and making driving on our roads uncomfortable and unsafe. So we need to take them away from our roads," he stated.