Extend standard gauge line contract to Awaso …railway workers tell govt

Workers of the struggling Ghana Railway Company Limited (GRCL) have tabled cogent reasons why the extension of the construction of standard gauge railway line from Kojokrom to Awaso was important if the government was committed to revamping the western rail line.

The government has awarded contract to M/S AMANDI for the construction of a standard gauge line from Kojokrom to Hunni-Valley, but workers of GRCL believe until the contract was extended to Awaso, no much benefit would be derived from it.

According to the workers, they are struggling to understand why a contract could be awarded for the construction of standard gauge line from Kojokrom to Hunni-Valley leaving out Awaso, where the bulk of railway revenue is centered in terms of haulage of bauxite and cocoa.

The General Secretary of the Ghana Railway Workers Union (GRWU), Godwill Ntarmah, who made the call at the 2nd Quadrennial Delegate Conference of the GRCL, pointed out that currently, the operations of the company were not in the best of times, and the earlier the standard gauge line contract was extended to Awaso, the better for the struggling railway company, and the country as a whole.

Speaking on the theme: ‘Revamping the Railway Sector, the role of stakeholders,’ the GRCL General Secretary, proffering reasons why the Awaso extension was left out of the standard gauge line contract, minced no words when he accused the owners of bulk road haulage trucks of orchestrating the non-revamping of the western rail line to Awaso.

According to Goodwill Ntarmah: “If this thinking is not the case, then it is difficult for us to appreciate why we do not have [the] contract for the revamping to Awaso up till now, especially with all the commitment of the current government to revamp the railway sector.”

Awaso is the ‘epic’ center for the haulage of bauxite and cocoa, and that is where the bulk of revenue of the GRCL is derived from.

The benefits the country would derive from hauling bauxite and other mineral ore, if the Awaso rail line was revamped, far outweighs the benefits individual owners of bulk road haulage trucks would get.

Turning his attention to the operations of the company, General Secretary Ntarmah, however, pointed out that the fortunes of the company had gravely been affected as a result of the suspension of Ghana Manganese Company (GMC) from its operations.

“Brothers and sisters, our company, from December 2019 to April 2020, had its operations affected by the vacation of Ghana Manganese Company. As you might be aware, the major stay of GRCL now is haulage of manganese ore from Nsuta to Takoradi Port. This suspension rendered our company inactive and had to rely on central government for total payment of salaries of railway workers.”

According to Ntarmah, this situation could have been avoided if the GRCL were to have diversification of its operations to include, among others, the haulage of bauxite and cocoa.

He said it was for this reason that the GRWU had on countless occasions in the past called for the revamping of the western rail line.

On his part, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Yaw Baah, expressed worry over why successive government had allowed the railway sector to decline, arguing: “If we can build our railway, our development will accelerate.”

This is because railway was the only measure for development.

 

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