Illegal miners occupy new Kojokrom-Manso railway lines

Illegal miners have unscrupulously occupied the edges of the newly constructed Kojokrom to Manso railway lines in the Western Region to ply their trade.During a visit by the Public Interest Accountability Committee (PIAC) project monitoring team to inspect the progress of work on the 204 million-dollar investment, saw segment of illegal miners scattered around the rail lines posing a huge threat to the national asset.Mr. Peter Forkah, the Consultant to the Ghana Railway Development Authority, who took the team along the 25 kilometres stretch of lines, obviously was disturbed about the new development by the illegal miners and urged PIAC to add its voice to the call against illegal mining by reporting the situation to the relevant authorities.He said the project, which began in 2013, had seen some substantial completion, noting the delay in release of funds, land acquisition as well as illegal mining as some problems currently impeding the development.The single-track standard gauge with stations would ease the stress on the road network when it becomes operational.The PIAC monitoring team in the Western Region was led by Emerita Professor Elizabeth Schandorf.Source: Ghana News Agency