Ghana is partnering with a South African based firm,Africa Investment (Ai) SkyTrain Consortium, for the construction of the Accra Sky Train Project aimed at taming huge road traffic witnessed in the capital.
Railways Development Minister, Joe Ghartey, who signed the agreement on the sidelines of the Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg said that by tackling traffic congestion in the city, there would be great improvement in economic activities,quality of life and less pollution in the city.
“Today, we have signed an MoU, which will last nine months, where they (Ai SkyTrain Consortium) can do their feasibility into detail.
After which we have given ourselves 45 days to take our concessionary agreements for approval by Cabinet and also by Parliament.
By January 2020, we should start the construction of the project,” Mr Ghartey said.
Ghana also hopes that the construction of the project will create jobs that would in turn spur economic growth.
“We are exceptionally excited also by the fact that a lot of the construction works will be done in Ghana. It will create a lot of jobs in Ghana, because the fabrication and construction will all be done in Ghana.”
SkyTrain uses moving-block automatic train control which allows for very short headways and facilitates rapidly changing capacity according to demand.
Intrusions onto the tracks are detected by an alarm system fitted throughout.
Over the sections carrying both lines, peak frequency is every two minutes. The single line lowest frequency is every eight minutes.
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