By Ragan M. Conteh

Residents and traders dwelling at Peace Market at Ferry Junction have raised serious concerns over the proposed demolition of their stalls by the Freetown City Council (FCC).

According to sources, the Mayor has informed all residents residing in the area to start to vacate because they said community has to be used for the Cable Car project.

One Amadu Kamara said most of them have constructed permanent residents in the market and it has also used as a place to do their business.

“We want the Mayor to look for another area or she will displace thousands of residents who fend our living in this community,” he pleaded.

Memunatu Conteh told this medium that the proposed demolition will cost them millions of leones while pleading with the central government to protect them and advised the Council to find another place for the Cable Car project.

Many others who spoke to Africa24 expressed frustration over the proposed demolition which they said will only add to their suffering and appealed for due considerations.

It could be recalled that Freetown City Council is working in partnership with the C40 Cities Finance Facility, to develop its first cable car project, with four stations, a total length of 3.6km, and the capacity to serve 6,000 people per hour in both directions.

This will transform the public transport sector in Freetown, allowing under-served hillside communities access to the central business district through quick, safe, and inexpensive public transport.

Freetown’s public transport system is currently largely informal and unregulated, with 80% of daily commuters relying on informal public transport. These informal public transport providers, such as mini-buses, taxis, and motorcycles, add to Freetown’s chronic traffic congestion, with average traffic speed at peak times around only 16km/h. This current system is unable to meet demand and many communities, for example informal settlements on coastal areas and hillsides, have poor access to transport and are therefore isolated from economic centres and social service providers.

This project seeks to offer an innovative solution to Freetown’s transport problem. This cable car will offer zero-carbon transit, connecting the eastern part of the city to the central business district, with stations located in informal hillside communities, a main market, and interchanges to buses and ferry terminals. The eastern part of the city is the most congested, and houses many low-income communities in informal settlements. But the cable car will help improve members of these communities’ standard of living, by providing quick, cheap, and safe access to jobs and public services. This project will not only allow greater and easier access to employment, but will create jobs too – 2,200 short-term jobs during construction, and 70 long-term jobs in operations.