Accra-Tema rail requires extra 10 billion cedis

Accra, Nov. 29 GNA - The Government would have to pump in additional 10 billion cedis to the Accra-Tema Rail Line Rehabilitation Project due to the discharge of effluent from the Manet Housing Estate (MHE) on to the rail tracks at Baatsonaa.

The extra money would be used to dredge 250-metre stretch of the line to a depth of five metres; fill it with large boulders before using suitable surface material to dress it up before laying the new rails. The project which was to be completed in August this year had been delayed for another six months.

Speaking to the media after a tour of the project site, Mr William Ackun, the Civil Engineer and Coordinator of the Ghana Railway Company (GRC), said all attempts made by GRC to get Manet Housing Estate to rectify the situation had failed.

He said further delay could stall the ongoing rehabilitation works on the Accra-Tema Rail Lines, which was to ease the burden of commuters.

He said the Sector Minister, Professor Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi had also written to the Management of Manet to build a treatment plant for waste water but nothing came out of it.

Mr Ackun, however, said even though the GRC had instructed their Lawyers to send Manet to court the GRC would have preferred dialogue to resolve the issue so that Manet paid for the land reclamation exercise. Mr Michael Adjei Anyetei, Project Engineer, warned encroachers building on GRC lands along the Spintex - Baatsonaa area to desist from such acts or have their structures pulled down by the Railway Authorities.

He also called on the Management of Manet to assist the GRC to solve the problem of the liquid waste which had developed into ponds and had become death traps.