Nana Nketsia Bemoans Collapse Of Railway Sector
Monday June 29, 2009
By Clement Adzei Boye, Essikado
The Omahene of the Essikado Traditional Area, Nana Kobina Nketsia V,has blamed the collapse of the railway industry on people whom he accuses of pursuing their own interests.
“The life-span of our roads has been destroyed by the haulage of bauxite by road.
This is a disgrace. Those who bring these trucks are political interest groups and they have also destroyed our railway too,” he stressed.
Nana Nketsia made these points last Thursday when the Minister for Transport, Alex Mike Hammah, paid a courtesy call on him at his palace here.
He said the country had lost the political will to tackle the problems of the rail sector “because nobody cares. If we don’t get serious, the railways will not survive.”
He said that memories of the old railway system had made the people of Western Region angry because they felt they had been neglected.
Nana Nketsia said all governments after the 1966 coup d’etat had not cared about the railways.
“The sacrifices of the pioneers of the railways system in the declaration of Positive Action, had been in vain,” he said and mentioned Pobee Biney and Renner as some men who “died” for the Railways and the country.
“They lie in their graves and nobody cares about them today. When you talk about railways, then it brings the tears back and increases our heartbeats,” he lamented.
The Omanhene told the Minister that he hailed the creation of the Ministry for Railways because he knew it would enhance creation of jobs for Essikado and the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis.
“Most people in Sekondi and Essikado had some relationship with railway because either their father or mother might have worked in the railways industry.
Today, they are frustrated and desperate,” he said.
He complained that the Location and the European-Town lands were not documented.
Nana Nketsia pledged the support of his council to the government to revitalise the railway sector.
Mr Hammah agreed that the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis had long relied on railway for jobs and said that the government and the ministry were examining all the critical issues to rehabilitate the sector.
He noted that without an efficient and reliable rail sector, the vision of the Gateway Project would not be realised.
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