The Minister of Railways Development, Hon. Joe Ghartey has said that the Ghana Railway Master Plan, which remains a guide for the fulfillment of his Ministry’s mandate has proposed a new railway network of 4,007.km with an investment of approximately US$21,507,920.

The plan envisages that total rail network will be standard gauge and executed in six phases.

This was contained in a speech read on his behalf by his Deputy Minister, Hon. Andy Appiah Kubi, MP for Asante Akim North, at the opening ceremony the first ever Week celebration of the Ghana Consulting Engineers Association (GCEA) held at the Engineers Centre, Roman Ridge, Accra on Wednesday, December 6, 2017.

Speaking on the theme: The role of Consulting Engineers and the Development Agenda of Ghana, the Deputy Minister said, “The Ministry of Railways Development will not invest such a huge amount in the sector without considering local industry players on a quality and capacity-based approach, therefore we support the call for a local inclusion policy on any investment in the country.

Implementing these priority projects will create jobs, facilitate trade and industrial development. The railway projects will provide opportunity for Associations like yours to take advantage and seek for jobs for your members. The development of the railways sector will completely transform the economy”, the Deputy Minister added.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Mayor of Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Hon. Mohammed Adjei Sowah said it is important that political leaders work closely with professional Consulting Engineers to find solutions to the problems confronting the nation in areas of providing accommodation and the construction of Energy Efficient Building to reduce the electricity usage on the national grid.

The President of GCEA, Ing. Albert Ogyiri, on his part, said that the Indigenous consulting engineering industry has a critical role to play in the development of the needed infrastructure in Ghana. Such infrastructure has to be safe, sustainable, resilient and most importantly, offer good value for money. The President of the Ghana Institution of Engineers, Ing. Mrs. Carlien Bou-Chedid explained that with the coming into force of the Engineering Council Act 819, it has become even more important that industry sectors become better organized, so they are well positioned to address the needs of their sector and engage in the advocacy that will enable those in the sector contribute more meaningfully to the development of the country. We commend the Ghana Consulting Engineering Association for the role they are playing, especially for the efforts to ensure that firms registered with the GCEA build and grow their competencies and the role that GCEA is now playing in Africa and the World as this opens opportunities for Engineers to work outside Ghana.

The current Chairman of the Group of African Member Association (GAMA) of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), Ing. F. Asare Yeboah delivered a fraternal greetings and solidarity message from the Executive Committee of GAMA/FIDIC and congratulated GCEA for organizing a public event to discuss issues related to the development of Ghana’s infrastructural development.

The 3-day conference includes activities such as Technical sessions, workshops, Annual General Meeting and Exhibition with a planned tour to project sites of Waste Management company (Jospong Group) at Adjen Kotoku and Lavender hill on Friday, 8th December 2017.