Sekondi (Western Region) -- The Sekondi telephone expansion project would be completed by the end of February, this year, Albert Enningful, Project Manager of the Ghana Telecom, said on Thursday.

He said under the project the 1,000 old telephone lines would be scrapped and replaced with 2,000 new lines. Conducting Mr Felix Owusu Agyepong, Minister of Communication and Technology, round the Sekondi telephone exchange Enningful said the project, estimated to cost 200,000 dollars, is being financed by Alcatel, a French Communication Company.

Enningful said plans were afoot to increase the Takoradi telephone lines from 13,000 lines to 18,000 lines and the project might start by the end of the year. Agyepong urged Ghana Telecom to speed up extending telephone facilities to the rural areas and appealed to telephone users to pay their bills promptly.