9 Firms Shortlisted for Kumasi – Paga Railway Project

Government’s programme to develop Ghana’s railway network system is on course following the shortlisting of nine (9) firms to submit proposals for the Central Spine stretch of rail line from Kumasi to Paga, which is also known as “The Ghana Railways Master Plan” project, Railways Development Minister has disclosed.

The Sector Minister, Joe Ghartey, assured that his outfit and other implementing agencies are leaving no stone unturned as they go through the necessary due processes to ensure the realization of the project.

“Mr. Speaker, in this regard, the Ministry has gone through the first phase of the procurement process, that is the Expression of Interest phase and has shortlisted nine (9) firms who are to be issued with Request for Proposal documents to submit detailed Technical and Financial Proposals by the end of March, 2018 for further evaluation ” he told Parliament.

Joe Ghartey stated these on the floor of Parliament where he appeared in response to a question by Adaklu Member of Parliament, Kwame Governs Agbodza who sought to know about the progress of work on the project.

Procurement & Contract Process

According to the Essikado-Ketan Member of Parliament, in line with provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2003,(Act 663) as amended by the Public Procurement (Amendment) Act, 2016, (Act 914),  the Ministry went through a competitive tendering process and selected a consortium of firms led by Messrs Gauff Ingenieure and Messrs ILF Consulting Engineers all from Germany.

The firms were selected after an approval by the Tender Review Committee and the Entity Tender Committee of the Ministry.

The contract for the project was signed on December, 22, 2017 whiles official work commenced with a kick off meeting on January, 25, 2018.

Feasibility studies on the project which expected to completed within six calendar month period is currently ongoing whiles a concurrent procurement has also been initiated to procure the services of a Transaction Advisor to procure private sector investor(s) to develop the railway lines from Kumasi-Paga after the feasibility studies.

Project Background

The Central Spine rail line also known as the Ghana Railway Master Plan which runs from Kumasi through Tamale to Paga is a 595 km green field project.

The feasibility includes surveying and mapping-out of the right-of-way (RoW) for the railway line before the procurement of an EPEC Contractor to undertake the construction works.

Approximately, only 947 kilometers of Ghana’s rail network which is currently operational is faced with obsolete network and poor track infrastructure, resulting in the closure of greater part of the Western and Eastern lines and the entire Central line with high incidence of derailments.

Inadequate funding for maintenance has been largely blamed the collapse of the rail network leading to the diversion of freight traffic onto roads, exacerbating deterioration of the roads.

Previous governments have made several utterances towards revamping the railway sector of the economy but with little results.

By: Christian Kpesese/ thePublisher