The Transport Ministry is to set up a Road Transport Authority to regulate all activities in the road transport industry The Deputy Minister of Transport, Mrs Joyce Bawa Mogtari, revealed that the Ministry, is going to set up this body with funding from the European Union.

She said the draft regulations and framework for the establishment of the authority had already been prepared and would soon be placed before Parliament for consideration.

Speaking during the opening of a three-day Transport Sector Review Conference in Akosombo on Thursday, she said Parliament had also passed the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill during the first quarter of this year.

She said the Bill would seek to provide modifications that were necessary to fill the void in Act 678 to make it compliant with international standards.

“Over the years, it has become necessary to amend the Act to make the Civil Aviation Authority comply with the necessary rules and guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organisation as well as to incorporate relevant conventions ratified by Ghana into the Act,” she said. Parliament had also passed the Ghana Maritime Labour Regulations which sought to create a licensing regime for the recruitment of seafarers and ensure their welfare.

For the railway sector, she said transaction advisory services were ongoing to select an appropriate private sector investor to partner Government to develop the Eastern Railway Line and the Boankra Inland Port on a Public Private Partnership basis.

Mrs Bawa Mogtari added that the construction of the Takoradi to Kojokrom Railway Line to support rail mass transportation within the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis was ongoing and was about 55 per cent complete.

She said Government was also considering an Indian Exim Bank credit facility to construct the Tema-Akosombo Railway Line which was part of the Eastern Corridor multimodal network.

She said the first phase of the Takoradi Port Expansion project, which involved the extension of breakwater by 1.08km dredging to 14m chart datum and reclamation of bulk ore terminal area were ongoing and was about 96 per cent complete.

“The first phase of Tema Port expansion project which also involves the construction of a Bulk Cargo Handling Jetty is about 70 per cent complete,” she said.

She said Government would soon deploy three-unit 50-seater high speed passenger ferries that had been procured to address the challenges of safe transportation faced by communities along the Volta Lake. “In addition, the construction of one unit modular passenger/cargo ferry has also been completed and ready for deployment on the lake,” she added.