The old Railway Training School and two workshops located at Essikado, Sekondi, have received major refurbishments and facelifts, Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance has said.

He told Parliament during the budget presentation on Wednesday November 13 that the Training School is to be upgraded and equipped with modern teaching and learning facilities to enhance capacity building and skills development for the Railway Sector.

“The development of a modern railway system remains a high priority of Government to facilitate the efficient and effective movement of both passenger and cargo. The expected benefits of a modern railway network to the people of Ghana are enormous and includes trade facilitation, travel time savings, transportation cost savings, reduction in road accident rates, vehicle and road maintenance cost savings, among others.

“The details of progress of implementation of the Railway Development Plan is highlighted in Section Three of this document.

“The Ministry undertook a review of the Railway Master Plan of 2013. The draft Final Report of the 2020 Master Plan was submitted to the Ministry and is being subjected to stakeholder review. The Plan envisages that the over 4000km of railway will be constructed over a 15-year period.

Some of the key proposals of the new Plan are as follows:

design speed revised from 120km per hour to 160km per hour;

minimum axle load increased from 22.5 tonnes to 25 tonnes; and

rail connection to all regional capitals and also economic zones such as the iron ore deposits at Sheini, near Yendi, the Oppong Manso iron ore deposits and the free zone at Shama

“The old Railway Training School and two workshops located at Essikado, Sekondi, received major refurbishments and facelifts. The Training School is to be upgraded and equipped with modern teaching and learning facilities to enhance capacity building and skills development for the Railway Sector.”