The Ministry for Railways Development says works on the Tema to Mpakadan railway line will not be completed on schedule as expected.
The ongoing rail project was supposed to be completed in August this year but was halted after 70 workers on the construction team tested positive for COVID-19.
The Minister for Railways Development, Joe Ghartey, in a Citi News interview, indicated that his outfit is in talks with the contractors to determine a new date of completion.
“This morning the Ghana Railway Authority met with and asked them to give us their proposals for their new timelines but like all the contractors that we work with have said to me that all the construction that nature is like a car that you can just switch it on and off.”
“When demobilise to remobilise, it takes time and so we’ve lost significant time. For those who say it will be completed with pace, that is not the not situation. In December, we said it will be completed in August but even the nose mask you are wearing must show you that the world has changed and we have all experienced this unfortunate incidence and has changed our world completely and they also had people who had the virus so they had to stop working,” he said
About the Tema to Mpakadan railway
The Tema-Mpakadan rail line is part of the 1,000km Ghana-Burkina Faso Railway Interconnectivity Project which will link Ghana from Tema to Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.
In December 2019, the Minister disclosed that 28 kilometres of track have been laid, with the contractor assuring that 40 more kilometres of the track will be completed by the end of this year.
The Project, when completed will be a modern, standard gauge rail line
The two countries had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in January 2017 in Ouagadougou to kick-start the project.
According to the plan, some 800km of the railway line will be in Ghana’s territory while the remaining 200km will be on Burkinabe soil.
