AFCON Construction Company executing the Tema-Akosombo to Mpakadan railway project has resumed work three months after it was shut down 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 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 against the workers but rather provide the needed corporation to help facilitate its completion.

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 through Afienya, North Tongu District in the Volta Region, 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.