Edith Atiaka Eshun
TDC Ghana Limited has defended its statutory mandate to plan, lay out and develop the Tema area, saying the mandate predates the establishment of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, TMA.
The TDC Development Company Limited (TDC) was set up in 1952 by an Act of Parliament with the responsibility to plan and develop about 63 square miles of land and manage the township that had been created. TDC was given a 125 year lease term to manage the land area known as the Tema Acquisition Area.
The Company since its birth, has gone through many experiences involving structural and legislative changes, the latest being a mandate to develop an area in Ho, the Volta Regional Capital.
The clarification about TDC’s mandate in Tema follows an ongoing disagreement between the it and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, TMA over a proposed housing project at Site Three in Community One, where TMA halted and demolished preparatory works being undertaken by TDC.
TDC Ghana contends that, it must not be regarded as an ordinary private developer operating at the discretion of the Assembly. According to TDC Ghana, the 63 square miles of land, subsequently known as the Tema Acquisition Area, was compulsorily acquired by government from the traditional authorities of Tema, Nungua and Kpone and placed under its management through the 125-year lease which is presently only about halfway through the lease.
TDC says the Corporation was specifically mandated to undertake the planning, layout and development of the new township, transforming the acquired area into the planned industrial and residential city Tema has become, stressing that, the Tema District Council, from which the current TMA evolved, was established considerably later.
The TDC concedes that subsequent legislative changes transferred certain municipal responsibilities to the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, but did not remove TDC’s core responsibility to plan, lay out and develop Tema.
TDC Ghana acknowledged the Assembly’s authority over physical planning, development control and municipal administration, but maintained that these responsibilities must coexist with its own statutory and proprietary interests.
It has therefore called for dialogue and inter-agency collaboration to resolve the Community One, Site Three dispute, stressing that confrontation between the two state institutions will not serve the development interests of Tema.
TDC Ghana says the priority should be for both institutions to work together to promote the redevelopment of Tema into a modern and sustainable city.
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