Takoradi MP demands timelines for government projects

The Member of   Parliament for Takoradi Constituency in the western region Dr. Kobby Otchere Darko Mensah has asked government to disclose timelines for the completion of all promised projects by government in the western region and in other parts of the country. According to the legislature, government is fond of promising projects to people in many parts of the country without telling when those projects will be completed.

“I expect timelines for those deliverable projects. I want to know when the Western Rail Lines project will commence and be completed. I want to know when the Takoradi Port expansion project will be completed. Talk is always cheap and so all we are hearing is project here, project there without any timelines those projects will be ready for our people”. Dr. Darko Mensah noted.

The Takoradi legislator who was not happy about government’s continuous promises to the people suggested to the NDC administration to stay focused on specific projects and complete them within schedule to benefit people on time, than to keep promising new ones. He said for instance “on railway projects, today you hear feasibility, tomorrow it’s a master plan. Everyday there is something on paper. We want to see something rather happening on the ground, which is why I am asking them to provide timelines for all those projects they promise the people”.

Dr. Darko Mensah, who is also a member of the parliamentary select committee on roads, questioned why the ministry of transport will approve the construction of the Kojokrom-Takoradi via Sekondi Railway project when “what the Western region urgently needs is the Western rail line from Kojokrom to Awaso through Nsuta. This is the project needed to facilitate the transport of Cocoa, Manganese, Bauxite and other resources from the hinterlands to the Takoradi ports, not a railway which will come to compete with public and private transports for passengers from Kojokrom to Takoradi”.

He suggested to the Mahama led NDC administration to adopt the Western Rail Lines development strategy that the erstwhile Kuffour administration adopted to begin the project. He said “the NPP was in a Public Private Partnership agreement talks with the Bauxite Company, manganese, TIDB representing the timber firms, COCOBOD and government to all make contributions for the Western Rail Lines project. If the NDC adopted this module, the project might have been completed to provide jobs for our people and to facilitate movement of goods and services.”