Ghana Institute of Engineers meet Dr Thomas Mensah

Dr. Thomas Mensah met with the leadership of the Ghana Institute of Engineers in Accra during his recent visit to Ghana on December 28th, 2017 at the Engineering Center Building.

The New President of Ghana Institute of Engineers; Ing Mrs Carlien D. Bou - Chedid, a Structural and Civil Engineer and the leadership discussed the Transportation Infrastructure in Ghana and how to transform it.

Dr. Thomas Mensah presented his High Speed Rail proposal for Ghana, stressing the need to combine Freight with Passenger Rai as has been done in Kenya, Ethiopia and Morocco.

The Institute leadership agreed with Dr. Mensah about how this can transform Ghana and its beneficial impact on the Ghana's Economy in creating jobs for the Youth and its Citizens.

It was agreed that the current attempt by the Ghana Railway Development Authority/Ministry of Railways to rehabilitate existing antiquated Rail lines is too costly and will take a long time. ($22 Billion versus $3 Billion as has been done in Kenya,). It was recommended that the Ghana Railway Development Authority/Ministry of Railways should focus on a Phase One Plan similar to the one used by Kenya with the Chinese Developers.

Dr. Mensah showed a video which indicated details of the Kenya Model for High Speed Rail Development and agreed that this will be the fastest and less costly way of building the Ghana High Speed Rail Line instead the Costly model of Rehabilitation the Legacy antiquated lines that may not be safe to operate.

He also showed how the Kenya Model, Chinese Engineers are seeing working side by side with Kenya Citizens laying the Rail Tracks, Installing advanced Rail Control Centers with wide screens and technicians directing the trains and rerouting them etc.

This approach transfers technology to Kenya and create jobs for the citizens including women who are driving the High Speed Trains in Kenya. The trains are helping move one million Containers as Freight to the port of Mombasa increasing Port Efficiency.

Other Countries including Ethiopia have developed high speed rail that run on electricity unlike the Kenya model that are locomotives still using SGR system. Dr. Mensah will recommend that the Kenya Model be used as Phase I for Ghana High Speed Rail System Development since it does not on electricity to drive the trains . The train travels at 120 KM/Hour for passengers and 86 Km/Hour which means Ghana Electricity needs will not be affected. The Ethiopian trains run on Electricity. The Chinese built both systems. Morocco has built one using France as Developers which also runs on Electricity.

Dr. Mensah in his recent meeting with His Excellency; Nana Akuffo Addo, the President of of the Republic of Ghana at the Flagstaff House showed an article indicting the benefit of Job Creation in Morocco following their High Speed Rail Development, with three Car Manufacturers, Renault, Peugeot and BYD of China locating there to manufacture cars for sales to Africa and Europe.

Ghana will benefit if it build its High Speed Rail since Dr. Mensah says he can convince other car manufacturers in the US and Europe, like General Motors,, Ford, Tesla and Mercedes to locate their factories in Ghana. This will accelerate the One Factory –One District program for His Excellency and NPP.

Dr. Mensah also discussed the New Airport Maintenance Facility to be built in Kumasi Ghana where aircraft from all west African countries will come to be maintained. These Aircraft now have to fly to South Africa, Ethiopia and Amsterdam for Maintenance, Wasting fuel on such long distance flights impacting sustainability. This Maintenance Facility will also improve Aviation Safety in West Africa.

Finally Dr. Mensah discussed the set up of the Silicon Valley of GHANA with 4 centers of Innovation at the University of Ghana Legon in Accra, University of Cape Coast, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University for Development Studies; Tamale.

The website is www.Siliconvalleygh.com

These proposals were received by the Ghana Institute of Engineers which indicated that it will organize a Forum on Transportation Infrastructure in the coming months.

Among the reasons for working with the Ghana Institute of Engineers are;

1 . R.P Baffuor is among its past Presidents and Dr Mensah just gave the 10th R.P. Baffuor Lecture at KNUST recently after which he was given the Honorary Doctorate, D.Sc Honoraris Causa,

2 . Most engineers in the country are members or Fellows of the Institute including; the Senior Minister; Hon. Yaw Osafo Marfo who is a Fellow of the Institute.