The resuscitation of the railway system in the country will witness a major boost in mid-February with the arrival of twelve units of modern diesel train engines and vehicles from Poland.
The units, part of a comprehensive arrangement in the ongoing railway resuscitation project across the country, are expected to facilitate the activation of regional and long distance operations of the passenger and freight train system in the country.
An official of the Polish railway company charged with the task of producing the engines, Rynek Kolejowy, who broke the news, said the modern railways are expected in mid-February.
“They’re due to reach Ghana by mid-February,” he said, adding that they are already en route to Ghana.
He disclosed that the Ghana Railways Company Limited ordered the modern diesel engines “from Bydgoszcz to operate both regional and long-distance lines.”
The order was first confirmed September last year.
Continuing, the official said that “the first vehicle is already undergoing final tests at the factory in Bydgoszcz.”
The order, a major deal on the international railway scene, has already caught the attention of industry watchers who put out the information on the public space recently.
The contract is for “the supply of 12 Diesel multiple units, with 10 vehicles being an option for the ordering party. The vehicle is technically similar to the RegioFox vehicles that Bydgoszcz produces for Czech Railways.”
With the arrival of the engines and completion of some of the tracks coupled with the railway bridge over the Volta River at Mpakadan, a major feat would have been chalked by the government in the line of resuscitating a transportation system long dead, its aged tracks overgrown with weeds.
The Mpakadan segment of the railway system constitutes a backbone of the track system between Tema, through Yendi, Tamale and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
The capital-intensive project is being undertaken under the aegis of the President Akufo-Addo established Ministry of Railways Development, which was established in February 2017.
The main frame of reference of the Ministry whose implementing agency is the Ghana Railway Company Limited is the rapid development of a modern rail network in Ghana.
It is expected that the modern railway system being envisaged will connect the major cities of Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, and Tamale, ending in Burkina Faso.
It will also enhance the use of Ghana as the route for transporting goods from landlocked countries north of Ghana, such as Burkina Faso, to the ports of Tema and Takoradi, and also from the ports to the landlocked countries.
The transportation of the multiple minerals the country is endowed with, among them manganese, bauxite, and iron ore along the route of the existing railway’s network will be greatly enhanced when the railway system is fully operational, industry watchers have asserted.
Commercial and high grade iron ore deposits have already been offered some successful bidders who are on sight already undertaking further work to determine the quantity of the minerals among others, the viability of which has been ascertained following intensive geological sampling.
The recent completion of the Mpakadan railway bridge, the first of its kind in the country, will link the southern portions of the country to the north and Burkina Faso.
Both countries, Ghana and Burkina Faso, have showed keen interest in the railway project because of the inherent economic dividends.
The mid-February arrival of the modern railway engines and vehicles would have gone a long way in making the dream of the resuscitation of this steel track transportation system by President Akufo-Addo come true.
The current railway network in the country is made up of three lines: The Western Line, the Eastern Line, and the Central Line (from Huni Valley to Kotuku), all built during the colonial period.
Sources from the Railway Ministry indicate that “what is still operational is barely 13% of the approximately 947 kilometers of rail
that existed at independence in 1957. These lines are all narrow (Cape) gauge, single-track lines. What is left of it, is used for both freight and passenger traffic. Over the years, the track and rolling stock have all deteriorated, due to lack of maintenance.”
The Ghana Railway Master Plan, completed in 2013, is a guide for the fulfillment of the ministry’s mandate, the Railway Ministry stated in a document about the industry, adding “the Master Plan proposes a new railway network of 4,007.6 km with an investment of approximately US$21,507,920,000.00. All the new rail networks will be standard gauges. The Ghana Railway Master Plan envisages that the total rail network of 4,007.6 km is to be done in six phases.
“The Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Railways Development, having reviewed the Ghana Railways Master Plan, has identified specific phases of the Master Plan as Priority Projects for the next few years. The proposed time frame for the execution of these Priority Projects is from July 2016 to June 2020.
“These Priority Projects are Phase 2 of the Master Plan and some railway lines in Phase 3 and Phase 5 of the Master Plan.
“This is as of 2013 and the figure has not been reviewed. Phase 2 covers approximately a total of 1234km. It involves the construction of the following: Takoradi – Kumasi (Western) Line, 339 km, (with a branch line from Dunkwa to Awaso). Accra – Kumasi (Eastern) Line (300 km). The lines in Phase 3 that have been included in Priority Projects for the next four years are the following: Kumasi – Nyinahin Line (58 km), and Tamale – Yendi Line (102 km).”
The total length of the rail network identified as a Priority Project is 1394 kilometers, the company added.
Implementing these Priority Projects will create jobs and facilitate trade and industrial development and stimulate economic growth, it has been learnt.
By A.R. Gomda