West Coast High Speed Rail Project on course

Five countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have begun the process of embarking on a West Coast High Speed Rail Project to help bring development to the sub-region.
The representatives of the countries- Ghana, Cote d’ Ivoire, Nigeria, Togo and Benin - met last Friday, at Akosombo in the Eastern Region to further discuss ways to bring into fruition the project which was estimated to cost 58.9 billion US dollars.

The 1,178.84 kilometre project will have its stations in Cotonou, Lome and Accra, as well as terminals in Abidjan and Seme/Badagry in Nigeria.

Addressing a conference on the ministerial summit, the Minister of Transport, Mrs Dzifa Attivor, underscored the need for the realisation of the project which, she said, would eliminate barriers that hindered trade activities between countries in the sub-region.

According to her, the political independence of the ECOWAS region was useless, unless the economic emancipation of the sub-region was fully realised, adding “one of the surest ways of doing that is to see to the realisation of the Africa High Speed Rail Project”.

She said the project had received tremendous political support because Ghana, considered the railway sector as a viable means of income generation and job creation, stressing “ the government has prioritised the sector by investing and encouraging the private sector in that direction”.

Mrs Attivor noted that of all the modes of transport, be it air, water and road, railway remained the cheapest, and efforts to develop the industry must be given the necessary support.

She, therefore, urged member states of the project to facilitate the transformation of the dreams and ideas into concrete decisions that would lead to the actual realisation and the implementation of the project.

The Chairman of the Hammco BTB, chief promoter and lead manager of the project, Mr Idowu Obasa, said the goal of the project was to transform the transportation system to pave way for smooth business activities within the sub-region.

According to him, the greatest challenge of the time “was how to give substance and effect to the relationship in the true meaning of the union and as siblings for whom political, economic, cultural and social life means nothing but freedom, progress and development”.

Mr Obasa noted that through the project, citizens in the union would renew their faith in the founding fathers for a true community of progress.

“This will also deepen the vision of our people for collective self-action, and the greatest promise is we yield a legacy of freedom, growth, peaceful co-existence and development to our children and future generations.

Mr Obasa said despite the border lines that existed between the countries, “the people of the West African sub-region are actually the same culturally and socially”.

By Dominic Moses Awiah/Daily Graphic/Ghana