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Mr Joe Ghartey, the Minister for Railway Development, has called on the Ga Traditional Council to assist in getting encroachers off railway lines to allow for construction work to continue, in order to ease the traffic situation in the country.

He said work on the rehabilitation of the Accra-Nsawam line had begun in Accra but was being hampered by the activities of trespassers on railway lands.

The Minister said this in Accra when he, together with a team comprising the Greater Accra Regional Minister and his deputy, the Mayor of Accra and some members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Roads and Transport, paid a courtesy call on the Ga Traditional Council to seek their support in reclaiming encroached railway lands.

He noted that every developed country had a railway system and this project, when it came into effect, would enhance economic activities, ease traffic congestion and reduce pressure on road infrastructure while reducing road carnages.

Mr Ghartey bemoaned the neglect of the railway system in the post-colonial era, which had left Ghana railway system in a deplorable state, describing the situation as one of the biggest tragedies of the post-colonial era.
This neglect, he said, was what had caused the encroachment, but added that the Ministry was keen to address this challenge in order to develop the sector.

He said the Ministry was also in the process of getting investors for work to begin on the 330-kilometer Eastern railway line, which will connect Accra to Kumasi, with a branch line from Achimota to the Tema Port.

The line will have both a narrow gauge which will carry slower suburban coaches that will stop at towns along the line and a standard gauge line, which will carry fast trains with minimal stops.

Mr Ghartey told the Chiefs that the project was for the benefit of all Ghanaians and solicited their assistance as leaders of the people to advise them to evacuate from the rail lines and lands around the lines so that work could proceed smoothly.

He said many people, especially traders, had taken over the lines and areas around it and were selling on the line, hampering construction and putting their own lives at risk.