Digital JUNE 4, 2020

Digital JUNE 4, 2020.qxp_Layout 1 6/3/20 8:22 PM Page 5
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NEWS
DAILY HERITAGE DIGITAL THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020
Railway Company resumes
work after 82 workers
recover from Covid-19
BY KOJO ANSAH, K’DUA
AFCON CON-
STRUCTION
Company executing
the Tema-Akosombo-Mpakadan
railway project has
resumed work three months after
it stalled over coronavirus infections
among the workers.
A total of 82 workers of the
company in two camps at Kpong
in Lower Manya Krobo Municipality
and Apeguso in the Asuogyaman
District tested positive for the
virus.
However, all the affected workers
recovered last month.
In a brief ceremony to reopen
the company on Tuesday, June 2,
2020, the Eastern Regional Minister,
Eric Kwakye Darfour,
urged residents not to
stigmatize the workers but
rather provide them the
needed co-operation to
help facilitate completion
of the project.
Work on the 99-kilometre
Tema-Mpakadan
railway line started in 2017
and is expected to be
completed this month.
The US$230 million
railway project begins
from Tema and goes
through Afienya, North
Tongu District in the
Volta Region, and Manya
Krobo and terminates at
Mpakadan, a few kilometres
from Akosombo.
The railway line has
been designed for 120 km
per hour trains, which is faster
than the current 58km per hour
passenger trains in Ghana.
The Tema-Akosombo rail project
includes the construction of
rail tracks of standard gauge, railway
maintenance facilities for locomotive
and wagons, the building
of stations at specific locations
with communications and signal
equipment and capacity building
for personnel in all aspects of the
railway system.
Funding for design and construction
of the project was secured
by the government of
Ghana in 2016 from Export-Import
Bank of India (Exim Bank)
The facility is Buyers’ Credit
(BC) arrangement under the National
Export Insurance Account
(NEIA) to the Government of the
Republic of Ghana.
Govt finds strategic investor for
Komenda Sugar Factory –Trade Minister
•Alan Kyeremanten, Minister of Trade and Industry
THE MINISTRY of Trade and
Industry has signed an agreement
with Park Agrotech Ghana
Limited, a company incorporated
in Ghana and operating in
the agribusiness sector, to operate
the defunct Komenda Sugar
Factory.
“This follows the successful
completion of the bid evaluation
process by the transaction
advisor and a recommendation
made for the consideration by
the Ministry and Cabinet after
identification of a strategic investor
with the requisite technical
and financial capacity to
operate the factory efficiently
and profitably,” he stressed.
According to Alan Kyerematen,
the Minister of Trade
and Industry, the company will
be working in partnership with
STM Projects Limited, an Indiabased
company with an extensive
experience in the
management and operations of
sugar mills and plantations in
both India and other parts of
the world.
Under the Agreement, Park
Agrotech Ghana Limited will invest
USD 28 million over the
first three years in capital expenditure
and working capital, including
paying an annual
concession fee of USD 3.3 million
for a period of fifteen years,
the Minister further added.
Mr Kyerematen made this
disclosure in an answer to a
question asked him in Parliament
on Wednesday morning by
the Member for Chereponi,
Hon. Samuel A. Jabanyite, who
sought to know the current status
of the factory and efforts
being made to operationalise it.
He said the agreement will be
effective upon completion of
conditions precedent, which will
include the approval by Parliament,
for which approval documentation
will be brought to the
House in due course.
The Minister said it was
agreed during the final negotiations
that the implementation of
the project be delayed until the
finalisation of the National
Sugar Policy intended to provide
the strategic policy framework
for the implementation of the
project.
He said the approval of the
Sugar policy by Cabinet in October
2019 after a series of extensive
consultations in October
last year paved the way for the
concessionaire to be formally introduced
to the chiefs and elders
of the Komenda Traditional
Area in November 2019.
Mr Kyerematen expressed
the hope that the company, Park
Agrotech, would begin a comprehensive
programme of action
to bring the factory to life
as soon as restrictions on all foreign
travels due to the Covid-19
pandemic were lifted and all relevant
approvals secured.
June 3, 2015 flood disaster
OneGhana Movement, victims
sue GOIL, NPA, AMA others
•Flashback: Scenes after June 3, 2015 disaster
A PRESSURE group, OneGhana Movement,
and the victims of June 3, 2015 twin
flood and fire disaster have commenced a
class action suit against Ghana Oil
(GOIL), National Petroleum Authority
(NPA) and the Accra Metropolitan Authority
(AMA) for their complicity in the
disaster.
Victims, according to reports, are still
facing major hardships five years on since
the terrible incident occurred.
A statement issued by the group
said,:”As we press resources into service
to ensure justice for the victims and their
families, we humbly request media organizations
and other public-spirited entities to
join us in this fight for justice and a better
show of responsibility by our public service
institutions.”
It added, “While
the court case continues,
it is our expectation
that the pursuit
of justice will not
only result in fair
compensations to victims
and their families
and punishment to
culpable officials but
also even more importantly,
it will drive
the sense of accountability
and responsibility
on the part of
citizens, corporate
Ghana and public officials.
“In so doing, the citizens shall be emboldened
not to allow their rights and
privileges to be trampled upon, and public
servants and politicians alike shall realize
that they will be held accountable for their
actions.”
June 3 Disaster
Yesterday, June 3, marked the fifth anniversary
of Ghana’s worst disaster, the
June 3 twin disaster, which occurred in
Accra, 2015.
In the middle of a heavy flooding and
rainstorm on the night of Wednesday,
June 3 2015, an explosion at the GOIL
filling station at PTC, Kwame Nkrumah
Circle, in the capital Accra killed at least
150 people, a disaster that plunged the
whole nation into an official three-day national
mourning.
The streets in the vicinity of the accident
scene were littered with bodies while
some were found in drains, taking authorities
weeks to clear the debris from the disaster.
The morgues were congested with
bodies and hospital authorities were overwhelmed
with casualties from Ghana’s
worst ever disaster that happened on June
3.
What many Ghanaians termed another
Black Wednesday after the May 9, 2000
stadium disaster, has imprints of sadness,
and sorrow till date and likely to leave indelible
scars in the minds of Ghanaians.