ACCRA, July 13 (Reuters) - State-owned Ghana Railways Corporation (GRC) has negotiated a $16 million loan from South Africa"s Absa (ASAJ.J) bank to help it cope with an expected increase in freight haulage capacity, rail officials said. GRC"s deputy managing director, Emmanuel Poku, told Reuters GRC was now awaiting final approval from the ministry of roads and transport.

Haulage of bauxite and manganese, which make up the bulk of GRC"s freight business, was set to increase to one million tonnes and 600,000 tonnes a year respectively by 2002 from 400,000 and 450,000 tonnes, GRC Managing Director Samuel Barnes said. He said the loan would also go towards stepping up transport of petroleum products from the port of Tema near Accra to the second city of Kumasi, 270 km (165 miles) to the north. "We intend to buy 80 tank wagons and repair rail tracks from Tema to Kumasi and two bridges to help in our terminal operations," Barnes said.

GRC currently has 17 tank wagons. It has total track of 953 miles (1,525 km), all in the southern half of the country. It carries around 2.5 million passengers a year, down from around six million at the time of independence from Britain in 1957, with neglect in the 1960s and 1970s taking its toll. The government has announced that it intends to privatise the company but no date has been set.