South African company announces $3.2b agreement with Ghana for Western railway line
A South African company, Thelo DB Consortium has announced it will on July 25, 2022 sign an agreement for the Western Railway Line Project with the Ghana government worth $3.2 billion.
Ghana’s railway sector has a story, a long story with no obvious ending in sight. From its glorious days before Ghana became independent to this day, it’s a bitter-sweet story.
According to the Ministry of Railways Development, the country’s Western Railway line is a total of 339km from the Takoradi Harbour to Kumasi but only 66km is operational.
This agreement won’t be the only one to be signed by successive governments in recent times, including one for a sky train.
In a statement issued by the company, it says it will be signing a framework agreement for the transformational Western Railway Line Project with the government during the Ministerial Programme hosted by the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement Secretariat in Accra.
Ronnie Ntuli, Chairman of Thelo DB, was quoted as saying: “The Western Railway Line Project will transform Ghana’s existing railway infrastructure base into a modern, robust and integrated railway system, with the associated infrastructure to position Ghana’s rail network as a leading transport system in Africa.”
According to the statement, the project includes planning (all project preparation-related activities, such as feasibility studies, demand analysis, preliminary and detailed design, and procurement consulting); implementation (systems engineering design, construction supervision, design review, audit systems engineering, testing and commissioning of rolling stock and infrastructure); and operations and maintenance management (early train operator, consulting services in terms of infrastructure operations, rolling stock operations, infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance)
Thelo DB is incorporated between Thelo Ventures, and Germany’s Deutsche Bahn Engineering & Consulting (DB). The Thelo DB consortium also includes Ghanaian partner Transtech Consult.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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