Ghana to construct 340km railway line at $2.2bn while 146km Lagos-Ibadan costs $2bn
The Ghanaian-European Railway Consortium (GERC) has agreed to construct a 340km standard gauge railway line in Ghana at $2.2 billion.
By contrast, the 156km railway line between Lagos and Ibadan in south-west Nigeria will cost the country $2 billion.
That comes to $6.5 million per kilometre in Ghana and $13.6 million in Nigeria.
In 2016, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) had signed a $1.5 billion agreement with the Nigerian government to build a 156 km railway line between Lagos and Ibadan.
A ground-breaking ceremony for the construction held in March 2017.
According to information on the website of the ministry of railways development in Ghana, the Eastern Railway line, which links Accra, Tema and Kumasi, is expected to boost economic activities along the corridor, especially at the Boankra Inland Port after completion.
Joe Ghartey, Ghana’s minister of railway development, said the project is based on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) agreement.
GERC is expected to operate 24 passenger trains and six freight trains after completion of the 340-kilometre railway project.
The construction is expected to last for three years. The consortium has pledged to commence works in earnest.
There would be six main stations and 34 sub-stations along the double track corridor. The concession period is 27 years and the consortium hopes to recoup its investment within the period.
Ghartey recently visited Nigeria on the invitation of Rotimi Amaechi, Nigeria’s former minister of transportation, inspect and assess the railway construction projects that the Chinese conglomerate has completed and that are currently being undertaken in Nigeria.
It’s always very easy to crucify the Nigerian government..but did you take time to compare the kind of terrains the rail tracks will run through in Ghana and Naija? In Naija several bridges have to be built and also massive no of buildings pulled down, so the compensation costs to the owners of the buildings formed part of the contract sum..but i am sure that chop chop amount was still included, as am sure it was in Ghana’s contract too..nobody should fool himself into thinking that corruption doesn’t exist in Ghana too.
I can assure you that a lot of Bridges will be built in Ghana as well, also buildings will be demolished and they will still get better trains than what we will see in Nigeria. Take for instance the new Terminal at the Kotoka international airport in Accra was built just under or a little above $200 million by a South African firm is four times better than Abuja’s new Terminal built at almost $500 million.
Until we eliminate overinlfated contracts in our public procurement system, we have not yet started to fight corruption. We have to rise and team up to fight this corrupt practices that deprived our nation from making progress. It is not a matter of defense.
Good point, Sensible rationalization and Comparative analysis