The President, who was addressing a cross-section of senior media practitioners at the Jubilee House, complained about encroachers on the land earmarked for railways, saying they should not impede the progress being made in that area.

This is the third time the President is engaging the media to elicit feedback on his programmes and policies from the citizens.

The President also stated that his political opponents had gotten into the practice of resisting any innovative idea that would enhance socio-economic advancement, adding that he would not be deterred as he was in a hurry to move the nation forward.

Likewise, he said, the good people of Ghana were in a hurry to see their nation progress.  

The President opened the discussion with the strides made so far towards on infrastructural development, saying it was a critical sector, which when developed, would cushion growth of the economy.

He said the infrastructural deficit had become the biggest challenge for the nation as it sought to deal with the development agenda.

The President pointed out that the infrastructural deficit that had bedevilled the country for so many years; and had been a source of worry, necessitating a comprehensive programme for opening up by building more roads, bridges, airports and railways, to make it easy for goods and people to move around.  

Dwelling more railway development, he said the Government was “resurrecting the railways”, adding that, “the existing narrow gauge network, which had almost disappeared and led to a generation of young Ghanaians hardly knowing about railways, is coming alive”.

He announced that 10 existing passenger coaches had been refurbished ready to be opened for commuter service soon.The rehabilitation work on the 56-kilometer narrow gauge line from Kojokrom to Tarkwa through Nsuta was nearly in completion and would lead to the restoration of passenger rail services from Tarkwa to Takoradi for the first time since 2007, he stated.

The Freight services from the Manganese Mine at Nsuta to Takoradi was also in operation.

The Ghana Railway Authority was also rehabilitating the 70.8 kilometre narrow gauge section of the Eastern railway line from Accra to Nsawam and from Accra to Tema.   The rehabilitation of the Achimota to Tema section of the line was approximately 90 per cent completed and test round commenced, the President stated.

 Additionally, work was ongoing from the Achimota to Accra Central section of the line and the Achimota to Nsawam section, with the hope of completion before the end of the year.   He also said procurement process was far advanced to develop a new standard base-line for the Eastern Railway lines and others to have a network that covered the whole country.

However, the process was facing a major difficulty, which was slowing down the work due to the nuisance being posed by encroachers.