The cut rail line
DAILY GUIDE’s investigations have revealed that a narrow gauge rail line from Kojokrom to Ango in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis has for the past months suffered counts of cuts by some purported unscrupulous scrap dealers.
That section of the line is currently the active rail line of the Ghana Railway Company Limited in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis but the lines are being stolen.
The unfortunate situation, according to sources, is causing the state to lose huge investments made in the railway sector, as the miscreants continue to cause damage to the lines in the region.
Last Saturday, a team of technicians and engineers of the Railway Company, who were on a maintenance schedule on the Ango section of the rail line, detected that rails and slippers of about 15 metres had been cut off from the entire network.
Godwill Ntarmah, the General Secretary of the Railway Workers Union, who confirmed the story, said that the risk of derailment and serious accident were very high if any of the locomotives on that line were on a schedule last Saturday.
“We were fortunate to have spotted this flaw, lest a dangerous accident could have occurred when the company resumed work during the weekday. Let me stress that that section is prone to such thievery from scrap dealers,” he said.
He said the company had suffered several losses ever since they began rehabilitating the Western Rail Lines.
He indicated that before the current incident, the rails that were placed along the area for repair works were stolen, adding, “We have made some arrests but most of these people are the Okada riders who have been contracted by the dealers to convey the scrap metals.”
He said the company had since been working tirelessly to fix that section of the rail line so the company could resume operations, and stressed that the rail line had been the most economic line as it facilitates the haulage of manganese to the Takoradi Port.
“The alleged acts by the scrap dealers is a threat to the progress of our work. We must act quickly to safeguard a national asset. We want management to write officially to the security agencies to beef up investigations and patrols along that area,” he added.
He continued, “As a matter of fact, the workers have arranged to discuss a security measure to protect the rail lines and cause a thorough investigation to unravel those alleged miscreants behind the cuts.”
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi