…after NPP squandered $89.3 million meant for railways
MILLS BRINGS RAILWAYS ALIVE AGAIN
…inaugurates Tema-Accra Sub-Urban Railways Service today
By Aaron Okyere
The NDC government under President Mills will today be successfully bringing into
fruition in less than two years what the erstwhile NPP government was unable to do
in the railway sector throughout the eight years they were in power.
At 9:00 am this morning at the Tema Railway Station in the port city of Tema,
President Atta-Mills will be officially inaugurating the Tema-Accra sub-urban
railway line that would see rail services being rendered to Ghanaians who ply
between the nation’s capital and its main port city for the first time in over a
decade.
This very important service would help expedite people, goods and services between
the two cities and help reduce vehicular traffic that has become a menace in both
cities.
The railway system should have been in place long ago after the Kufuor government,
in 2007, accessed Eurobonds to the tune of $750 million and earmarked $89.3 million
to rebuild the railway sector.
However, as became characteristic of the NPP government, the money was squandered.
In explaining how they used the $89.3, the NPP’s Economic Management Team, rendering
accounts, claimed they spent $13.90 million instead of the $89.3 million on the
railway sector. The difference of $75.48 million was spent on other issues such as
the paying of November 2007 salaries and the buying of Anglogold shares.
Obviously, the money, rather than being used for the railway sector was squandered.
The claim that $13.90 million was spent does not even support the facts on the
ground as investigations conducted by this paper revealed that not even a kilometer
of railway line was successfully completed by the NPP administration.
Indeed, in it’s usual way of deceiving Ghanaians that the money was going to be
spent on the railway sector, the then President Kufuor, on Thursday, 20th December,
2007, inaugurated the Phase One of the Accra-Tema sub-urban railway services, the
very inauguration President Mills will be performing today since Kufuor’s own was a
hoax.
In his speech on that day, Kufuor asked all Ghanaians to be supportive of the drive
towards restoring the railway system to its former vibrancy and glory within the
national economy.
Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, the then Minister of Harbours and Railways, at
the same function said orders had been placed for the delivery of ultra-modern
Diesel Multiple Unit sets with their accompanying trailer cars to ply the restored
Accra-Tema line.
Interestingly, five months earlier, the same Prof. Ameyaw-Ekumfi told journalists
that the Accra-Tema railway transport for passengers would begin by the end of
September of that year.
At a Meet-the-Press series he said the rehabilitation of the line was progressing
steadily adding that, "We are on the verge of commencing test-runs on the line”.
He said 20 coaches and a locomotive at the main yard of the Ghana Railway Company at
Takoradi, which were refurbished, had been moved to Accra Railway Station awaiting a
test run on the rehabilitated Accra-Tema line.
All this spins, lies and deceptions came to an end when in the 2008 elections,
Ghanaians kicked the NPP government out of office and brought Prof. Mills and the
NDC into government.
The deception, having been brought to an end has seen the Mills government working
hard, without boasting, to restore the Accra-Tema railway lines. Daily Post has
visited workers re-building the rail lines even in the deep of the night under
police protection several times to ascertain progress of work. The grim
determination of the government to get the rail sector working vibrantly once more
is what has made it possible for President Mills to officially inaugurate the
Accra-Tema Sub-urban railway lines this morning.
This defiantly is going to be a feather in the cap of the Mills administration,
having done in less than two years what the NPP government couldn’t do in eight
years.
