The new Mayor of Accra, Alfred Vanderpuije, has vowed to decongest the national capital of its overflowing hawkers within six months and wage a relentless war on illegally sited structures. He would consider it a failure of his mandate to modernize Accra if the problem of choked streets, particularly in the business district, persists after the stipulation. Alfred Vanderpuije, voted overwhelmingly as the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s Chief Executive only last week, was speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show with host, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah. He secured a landslide victory in the Assembly election held last Thursday, polling 86 votes from 90. The educationist said Accra is a community with many challenges, and while in some areas there have been remarkable achievements in addressing the challenges, the city’s managers in some instances have simply failed to capitalize on opportunities to better the lot of the people. Announcing components of a five-year development strategy to modernize Accra, Mr. Vanderpuije said there is need to call time-out to assess prevailing challenges and devise appropriate solutions. “In other words, we come out with a blueprint that spells out a five-year development plan. It will have long term and short term objectives with specific benchmarks addressing the issues and the need for development… “Number two, we need to create the environment that is conducive for the socio-economic development of Accra. We need to create that environment, we owe it to t he residents of Accra …” He said achieving these goals would require that issues of sanitation, congestion and street hawking are all tackled. Mr. Vanderpuije said other areas that need immediate attention include improving the assembly’s revenue mobilization activities and systems, as well as adequate security so the city can have a stress-free night life where people can conveniently do business late into the night without having to close too early for fear of being attacked by criminals. He said he intends to convince the people of Accra of the need for ‘a new Accra’ through popularizing his strategic plan and vision, and once the people buy into the ideas, implementation and law enforcement should not be too much to achieve. [Listen to the attached audio for more] Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline.com