Boankra Inland Port and Eastern Railway get investors next year

The Ministry of Transport in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance has procured Messrs PWC as transaction advisors to engage a strategic investor to partner government in a Public Private Partnership(PPPs) to revamp the Eastern Railway and the Boankra Inland Port

The project which involves the reconstruction of the 300km stretch of dilapidated and defunct narrow gauge rail line to a standard gauge and the development of a 400 acre plot of land at Boankra into an inland port would receive a major private sector investment by close of next year.

This was made known on the floor of parliament Tuesday by Ms Dzifa Attivor, Minister of Transport, in response to a question posed by Member of Parliament for Nsawam- Adoagyiri, Mr Frank Annor Dompreh on measures her ministry has put in place in revamping the Accra-Nsawam Railway line.

“Messrs PWC has commenced its assignment after contract signing on 10th July,2014 and it is expected that by end of 2015, a private sector investor would be procured to partner government for the execution of the project,” she disclosed.

The 300km Eastern Railway which stretches from the Tema Port through to Accra to Kumasi and the Boankra Inland Port put together as a project by the Ministries of Finance and Transport when fully completed would ensure an efficient transport system both within the country and other land-locked countries that use Ghana as a transit point.

Ms Attivor told the House that the project would provide a “faster, safer and more efficient integrated transport and logistics system, for the movement of freight from the Tema Port to the Northern part of Ghana and other land-locked countries of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.”

The minister also revealed that the Ghana Railway Company Limited has been undertaking sleeper renewals of wooden ones with steel sleepers on the Accra-Nsawam line in order to continue providing a safe commuter rail services

“In addition, the ministry has applied to the Ministry of Finance for funds under the ABFA to enable the Ghana Railway Development Authority(GRDA) to undertake remedial works on the line pending the implementation of the project,” she said