Dr Mensah reiterates the need for high-speed rails in Ghana

By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Aug. 31, GNA - Dr Thomas Mensah, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Silicon Valley of Ghana, has reiterated the need for high-speed rail system in Ghana, in order to accelerate the nation's socioeconomic development.

High-speed rail is a type of rail transport that operates significantly faster than traditional rail traffic, using an integrated system of specialized rolling stock and dedicated tracks.

While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, new lines in excess of 250 kilometres per hour (160 mph) and existing lines in excess of 200 kilometres per hour (120 mph) are widely considered to be high-speed.

He said in other words, Ghanaians could not for 50 years go from Tema/Accra to Kumasi in five hours on a single lane road.

"You cannot develop that way. You cannot develop when it takes you 12 hours to travel from Accra to Tamale on a single lane road. So, on my hundred year development agenda, I say we should have a high-speed train in Ghana. Some people call it bullet train. But I want it to have the speed of the train in Japan, have the speed of the train in China.....You get to move Ghana from where it is to where it should be. You sit on a train and you are in Kumasi in one hour."

Dr Mensah made the appeal in his presentation at the fourth National Development Forum public lecture series in Accra.

The forum, which was organised by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), was under the theme: “Mastering Technology for Innovation and Transformation of Ghana’s Future”.

Dr Mensah said in order to accelerate Ghana's socioeconomic development there was the need to expand infrastructure and industry.

He said Ghana at this stage of her development needed high-speed train systems, aircraft maintenance facility and underground drainage systems to solve the problem of annual flooding in the cities.

He said high-speed trains are now in some African countries such as Morocco, Kenya and Ethiopia; hence, Ghana could not afford to be left behind.

“If Kenya can do it, then we can. It’s not that we can’t, money is not the problem. The consensus is to get the train from here all the way to Burkina Faso," Dr Mensah said.

Professor Samuel P. Owusu-Ofori, Adjunct Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), who chaired the forum said innovation without transformation was something else.

"So, as the youth innovates, those who are in-charge should try to use the knowledge or whatever they have created to benefit the country."

Prof Stephen Adei, the Chairman of the NDPC, said the forum was meant to engage on pertinent national issues, which hopefully they would have it sustained for the years to come.

He said the technology revolution is here and that Ghana must strive to benefit from it.

Prof Samuel Mensah Sackey, Director, Technology Programme, KNUST, called on government to help establish Ghana's maiden Technology Park at the KNUST, to help transform the nation into a major technology gaint in the ECOWAS sub-region.

GNA

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