Kweku Agyenim Boateng with executives of the Woodworkers’ Association touring the area
ONE HUNDRED and twenty houses are to be demolished when the contractor for the Tema-Akosombo Rail Project – AFCON Group of India – Â is given the green light to construct an 89-kilometer railway line.
Following a series of stakeholders’ engagements, over 700 houses were initially identified to have encroached on the railway track, but on humanitarian grounds, the track was redesigned to slash the number down.
A Deputy Minister of Railway, Kweku Agyenim Boateng, made these known when he met some aggrieved woodworkers at the Ashaiman Timber Market on Tuesday, subsequent to their agitation against a proposed demotion of part of the market.
The forum was aimed at discussing a petition filed by the Ashaiman Woodworkers Association, requesting the government to lessen the reservation from 100 feet to 50 feet so that their machine shops in the market would be excluded in the demolition exercise.
Woodworkers and traders at the place, who gave government ultimatum, closed their shops to protest against the planned demolition.
They accused the Railway Development Authority and the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) of failing to serve them notice on the planned demolition.
They also claimed that the TDC, which allocated the 8.5-acre land to them in 1991, subsequently reduced the size to 8.05 acres in October this year when the association petitioned the corporation about the impending exercise.
The demolition exercise is expected to affect about 30 wood processing shops which would lay off hundreds of workers.
However, the minister pointed out that the whole project was going to give a human face to ensure minimum demolition of structures, saying that the woodworkers’ request would be put into consideration to see how best they could be helped, subject to consultation and agreement by all stakeholders involved, including the contractor of the project.
“I am not promising, but I will put it before the minister and other stakeholders for a holistic view about the whole thing to see if something can be done about the situation since we are giving human face to the whole project,” Mr Agyenim Boateng stated.
Touching on compensation, the deputy minister said that only affected house owners who have genuine documents from the rightful authorities might be compensated.
He warned that there would be no compensation for persons who might have encroached on the land to be used for the project.
According to Mr Agyenim Boateng, “It is embedded in such contracts the issue of compensation. Only those who are legally affected, in other words, who have not encroached, would benefit. If you encroach on the land and you are required to move your assets, you are not entitled to compensation.”
The government was to begin the construction of railway lines from Tema to Akosombo this year but the project has been stalled as a result of some agitations.
The project, which is expected to cost $398 million, forms part of plans to redevelop the railways system in Ghana. The project is to be funded with an Exim Bank loan.
Mr. Agyening Boateng indicated that everything had been put in place to ensure that the programme comes off as planned.
He was hopeful that the project would speed up the development of the country.
Thomas Ahiadormey, Chairman of the Ashaiman Timber Market Woodworkers’ Association, was grateful to the ministry for listening to the concerns of the association and taking steps to address them.
From Vincent Kubi, Ashaiman