GOVT TO INVEST IN LAKE TRANSPORT (BACK PAGE)

Resources are to be invested by the government in transportation on the Volta Lake to make it a safer, affordable and cost-effective alternative to road and rail transport.
The investment is expected to save the nation $165 million incurred on road accidents annually, the Minister of Transport, Mr Mike Hammah, has announced.
Interacting with the media during a visit to the Volta Lake Transport Company (VLTC) Limited at Akosombo, Mr Hammah said the proposed investment in water transportation would also facilitate the movement of goods and services between the northern and southern sectors of the country.
The visit was to afford the minister and his deputy, Mrs Dzifa Attivor, an opportunity to gain first-hand insight into the challenges facing the company and its workers as well as to share the government’s vision for enhancing inland water transportation in the country.
“As part of strategies to boost the country’s socio-economic development and fast-track the attainment of a middle-income status by 2020, we are determined to construct a railway line from Tema to Akosombo from where cement and bulk haulage will be conveyed on the Volta Lake to Buipe and the northern parts of the country,” Mr Hammah stated.
The minister said since inland water transportation was more affordable, cheaper, environmentally friendly and cost-effective, the government was determined to commit huge resources to the sector.
According to him, the country’s dependence on road transport had not only taken a toll on its Gross Domestic Product, but also cost human lives through accidents which had caused “grief, pain and untold economic and psychological hardships to victims, their families and their dependants”.
Mr Hammah, who said the government was determined to support the growth of the VLTC, also appealed to the management and staff of the company to work extra hard to turn its fortunes-round.
The Managing Director of VLTC, Mr Kwasi Osei Sarpong, said one of the challenges facing the company was the replacement of Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation patronage with a Korean company, WORCON, a situation which he said had adversely affected the revenue generation of VLTC.
He, therefore, appealed to the government to help address problems facing the company so as to keep its 800 staff at post.