Parliamentary committee worried over railway properties encroachment

The Parliamentary Committee on Roads and Transport has expressed its worry over the encroachment of properties belonging to the Ministry of Railway Development.

According to the Committee, the said development is threatening the expansion of some of the key railway infrastructure.

The Committee made this observation when it approved an amount of GH¢512m as the Ministry’s allocation for the 2021 financial year.

The Roads and Transport committee noted that with the current state of the railways, most of the railway assets across the country have been abandoned and some have been encroached over by private sector individuals and organisations.

The Committee was, however, assured that the Ministry intends to pursue a programme to identify and ascertain the state of all railway assets across the country and take steps to reclaim these assets as well as update the railway asset database for proper inventory and management.

According to the Minister for Railway Development, John Peter Amewu, the government was committed to providing an alternative means of transport with the development of the railway and will stop at nothing to ensure the sector thrives

Budget allocation

According to the report by the Committee, the key priority programmes, projects and activities planned for 2021 include development of sections of the Western Railway Line on Standard Gauge, development of the Eastern Railway Line on Standard Gauge, development of the Tema to Mpakadan Standard Gauge Railway Line, development of Ghana-Burkina Faso Railway Interconnectivity Project, construction of the Accra to Kasoa suburban railway line.

Others are maintenance of sections of the narrow-gauge railway network, procurement of new standard gauge rolling stock and land acquisition for railway development.

Chairman of the Roads and Transport committee, Kennedy Osei Nyarko said it is significant for government to resource the sector by way of staff since it is faced with inadequate staff and few staff who are knowledgeable in railways.

The ranking member, Kwame Governs Agbodza also stated that government should resource the railway sector to secure more investments to enable it to build a better railway sector.

The report also revealed concerns of committee members which had to do with human resource capacity and office accommodation challenges, ineffective legal, regulatory and institutional regime, operational challenges and encroachment of railway lands.