Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, Minister for Ports, Harbours and Railways, yesterday said the Ministry would soon invite investors to finance the development of the Volta Lake Transport System (VLTS) to serve as an alternative route for the carriage of goods between Tema Port, the Northern Ghana and the Sahelian countries.

He said this in response to a question by Alhaji Seidu Amadu NDC-Yapei-Kusawgu as to what plans the ministry has to establish a container terminal at Buipe in view of the increasing haulage traffic between Tema Harbour and destinations in the Sahelian sub-region.

The Minister said Buipe and Akosombo ports were integral parts of the programme to develop the VLTS, adding that the creation of the Inland Port Development Authority to be inaugurated a few weeks to come, would put the activities of the Buipe and Akosombo Ports in proper perspective leading to handling of major issues including containerisation of the Buipe Port in particular.

"I wish to assure the house that government has plans to develop both the Buipe and Akosombo ports to facilitate the increased transit trade between Ghana and the Sahelian countries," he said.

Prof. Ameyaw-Ekumfi however noted that there were major problems confronting transport operations on the Volta Lake between Akosombo and Buipe in particular, which need to be thoroughly addressed before the containerization of the Buipe Port would be relevant. He said, low level of water in the lake reservoir, coupled with unreliable rainfall patterns in the northern zone, the existence of tree stumps in the lake fairways and rock out crops in the navigation fairway near Buipe among others, make sailing to Buipe port impossible.

Prof. Ameyaw-Ekumfi said there was also the need to construct access roads to ease inter-modal transport activity, adding that plans were afoot to construct rail lines from Kumasi through Yapei to Buipe to ensure easy transportation of goods to and from Buipe to target market areas."We need to also get vessel to ply the lake and maximise the use of the VLTS before we could containerise Buipe Port," he said.

He said there were a number of proposals before the ministry from organisations who want to be given the contract to clear the tree stumps from the lake, adding that the proposal would be carefully considered and the contract awarded to the most qualified organisation.

In response to a supplementary question by the original questioner on whether the Ministry have plans to re-invite an American company formerly working on the VLTS project, the minister said, "since I took office I have had two meetings with the American company and we hope to restore them back to work soon."