The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has started a major exercise to get hawkers and traders off the pavements and footbridges in the metropolis as part of efforts to decongest the city.

The AMA has earlier notified the hawkers of this exercise in the previous week.

In a statement issued the Assembly asked the traders and hawkers to vacate the streets and pavements before Monday (January 8, 2018).

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“We wish to bring to the fore that, Christmas activities are over and their continuous activities are a contributory factor to heaps of garbage deposited along the roads.”

According to the statement, some areas to be covered include the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, Kaneshie market, N1 highway, among other areas.

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The Assembly cautions those plying their trade along the Barnes Road and the Kwame Nkrumah circle illegally to vacate the place with immediate effect, failure of which they will be punished according to the hawkers’ by-law of 2011.

Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, has said the decongestion will be sustained.

“We are encouraging all the hawkers and the petty traders to move back inside the markets. We want to fashion out a strategy to be able to sustain it,” the Mayor had said.