The Minister for Railways Development, Hon. Joe Ghartey, has assured the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, that the Tema to Mpakadan Railway line will be completed in August 2020.

Taking President Akufo-Addo on a tour of the project on Wednesday, 4th December, 2019, the final day of the President’s tour of the Greater Accra Region, he explained that construction of the railway track was conceived as a “port to port Project” in 2007, under the Kufour era.

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.

The Minister for Railways Development added that, upon assumption of the Akufo-Addo government in January 2017, the agreement approved by Parliament was reviewed for a number of reasons.

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The reasons included a possible effect on the Akosombo Dam, since the project involved drilling a tunnel through rock to the Akosombo Port. The tunnel, he said, was only going to be 60 meters away from the Akosombo Dam at a one point.

“The line has been redesigned as the Tema to Mpakadan line. It now crosses the Volta River, and it is 10 kilometres more than the original length.  The line is now 97 kilometres,” Hon. Joe Ghartey added.

Thus far, the Minister told President Akufo-Addo that 28 kilometres of track has been laid, with the contractor assuring that 40 more kilometres of track will be completed by the end of this year.

The Project, which will be completed in August of 2020, is a modern, standard gauge rail line.