{"id":758849,"date":"2019-12-05T12:14:12","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T12:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2019\/12\/05\/ndc-sold-train-coaches-as-scrap\/"},"modified":"2019-12-05T12:14:12","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T12:14:12","slug":"ndc-sold-train-coaches-as-scrap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/12\/05\/ndc-sold-train-coaches-as-scrap\/","title":{"rendered":"NDC Sold Train Coaches As Scrap"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

President Akufo-Addo inspecting the Tema-Mpakadan standard gauge line .<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has emerged that
\nthe Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration authorised the
\nsale of train coaches, belonging to Ghana Railways Corporation, to scrap
\ndealers.<\/p>\n

They sold about 200
\nof the coaches as scraps and by the time the Akufo-Addo administration assumed
\noffice to stop the practice, only 27 coaches were available.<\/p>\n

The Minister for
\nRailways Development, Joe Ghartey, briefing President Akufo-Addo at Afienya on
\nthe final day of his Greater Accra Regional tour, said the railway workers
\nassured him that they could put the coaches into better use once the government
\nwas determined to revive the railway sector.<\/p>\n

He said as a result,
\nthe ministry, in collaboration with the Ghana Railways Authority, brought in
\nsome mechanics known in local parlance as \u2018Fitters\u2019 from Suame Magazine in
\nKumasi to join the railway team and they have since refurbished 10 out of the
\n27 coaches left.<\/p>\n

He said five of the
\nrefurbished coaches were deployed to Takoradi while the rest are being used on
\nthe Accra-Tema route.<\/p>\n

It was all excitement
\nwhen the President later visited Diesel Multi-Purpose Unit (DMU) of the Ghana
\nRailways Authority (GRCA) where the 17 coaches were being refurbished.<\/p>\n

An obviously excited President Akufo-Addo could
\nnot help dancing upon hearing the good news of the works taking place in the
\nrailway industry so far. He commended the minister and workers of the GRCL for
\ntheir hard work, declaring an end to the era of selling state properties as
\nscraps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very impressed to hear that the old
\npolicy of selling coaches as scrap has been itself scrapped and that this new
\npolicy of repairing our coach stock has already produced such positive results,\u201d
\nhe said.<\/p>\n

He promised to do whatever it takes to revamp
\nthe railway industry, adding \u201cthe British left us a functioning railway system;
\nwe didn\u2019t look after it, and we allowed it to deteriorate.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Akufo-Addo insisted that \u201cfor this
\npart of the 21st century, a major responsibility is on you, on me, my
\nsuccessors, to rebuild the railway infrastructure in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

2007
\nProject<\/strong><\/p>\n

Later Mr. Ghartey told President Akufo-Addo
\nthat the construction of the railway track was conceived as a \u201cport to port
\nproject\u201d in 2007 under the Kufuor era. <\/p>\n

As a result, in 2007, a contract was signed for feasibility study to be conducted for a Tema to Buipe multimodal transport system via Akosombo. In furtherance of this, in November 2016, an agreement was approved by Parliament for a Tema to Akosombo railway line.<\/p>\n

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