Stephen Balado Manu, Member of Parliament for Ahafo-Ano South on Friday appealed for the prompt payment of salaries of workers of the Ghana Railway Company if the resuscitation and improvement of the railways system in Ghana were to be given real meaning. He said a recent visit to Takoradi indicated the plight of the Railways workers and that they had not been paid for months. Mr Balado Manu made the appeal in a contribution to a statement "on the way forward for rail transport in Ghana " by the sector Minister, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi, on the floor of Parliament in Accra. He said if the project was to be given life, then the workers had to be given what was due them, and for concrete actions for the railways project so that it would not be mere rhetoric. Prof Ameyaw Akumfi had told Parliament that rail transportation currently carries only four per cent of freight as opposed to the road sector carrying 96 per cent of freight. In earlier times, the network conveyed substantially more traffic and eight million passengers, but by 1983, freight haulage slumped to an all time low of about 350,000 tonnes. The Minister said the dismal state of the rail network in the western corridor of the country had led to the transportation of bauxite by road leading to the continuous damage to the roads with dire consequences for the lifespan of the road. Prof Ameyaw Akumfi said, in addition to the inability of the Ghana Railway Company to meet the shipping needs of the mining companies, and thereby affect the productivity at the Ghana Bauxite and Manganese Companies. He recalled that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Government of Ghana and the M/S Peatrack Limited, (a Ghanaian Firm), in 2004 and was affirmed in 2005, with the understanding that a concession company would undertake a feasibility studies, and implement a project on the nation's railways system, starting from Tema. The whole project, totalling 1500 kilometres, shall be undertaken in two phases at an estimated cost of between 5.5 and 6 billion US dollars. The Minster said the first phase of the project covering the Tema-Accra-Kumasi would be implemented within five years at an estimated cost of $1.4 billion. The second phase shall consist of the Ejisu-Paga corridor to the north of the country. The NIT Holding, which is the financier, is providing 100 per cent funding of the project. A German Bank has confirmed an initial funding of $650 million, assigned by NIT Holdings. Prof Ameyaw Akumfi said the Concession period is 35 years, with the option for extension for delays due to Government, or inability to amortize within that period. The Minister said the network would cover the Tema- Accra-Kumasi Corridor and the Ejisu-Paga Corridor. Source: GNA