Ghana's Western Railway Line buckled by delay in contract

Smart grab

The Vice President of Dongfang Electric International Corporation (DEC), Mr Hu Weidong, has stated that although a contract has been signed with the Ghana Railway Company for upgrading of the Western Railway Line delays in processing the documents was stalling the project.

By Edmund Smith-Asante, CHENGDU, CHINA

Mr. Hu Weidong, Vice President of Dongfang Electric International Corporation (DEC) addressing the  journalists. PICTURE BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

A contract signed between the Ghana Railway Company and the Dongfang Electric International Corporation (DEC) of China for an upgrade of the Western Railway Line has gone missing in the throes of bureaucracy.

In view of that the re-development works expected on the line from Takoradi to Kumasi have been stalled and the DEC is still in the woods as to what is causing the delay of the project which Ghana stands to benefit from tremendously.

This fact was highlighted by the Vice President of DEC, Mr. Hu Weidong, who is also in charge of international business, when a team of African journalists in China on a media exchange programme visited the headquarters of the company.

He identified the delay in processing the relevant documentation for projects to take off as one of the major headaches of foreign investors in Ghana’s economy.

In his response to a question on the nature of the projects the DEC had in Ghana, he said “A few people in our company have traveled to Ghana. Also personally I signed a contract in Ghana with the National Grid Company for a substation project.

The journalists being shown round the Dongfang Electric Corporation's premises.

“I think Ghana is a good country to do business in but the only problem is that you see sometimes there is delay in the discussion of the business.”

Mr. Hu said that “for example we have discussed and signed a MoU with your national railway company for upgrading your Western Railway and we sent a delegation to survey all the tracks and we gave a proposal but there has been no response.”

A former Minister of Transport in the previous government, Mrs Dzifa Attivor, said the re-development works on the Western Railway Line, which would stretch from Takoradi to Kumasi; including a branch line from Dunkwa to Awaso was estimated to cost $1 billion when completed.

Lamenting that the bane of development projects in Ghana had been the very long delays in ensuring they moved from the documents to the actual work on the ground, Mr. Hu said DEC still nursed the hope that soon they could start the railway project since it would be very good to transport timber and minerals to the port.

Solar

Mr. Hu was confident that the DEC would become the 10^th largest solar module manufacturer in the world by next year because it had a joint venture with an American company – Sun Power. “So after next year we will reach the capacity of five gigawatts annually for high efficiency in solar panels.

“At the same time at DEC’s own factory we are producing the solar cells. We have the most advanced technology from Germany which also has R & D,” he added.

He said last year five solar farms were put up and the company was also discussing various projects with African and Asian countries and so he was very confident that in the coming year there would be more green energy projects on both continents.

Mr Zhou Jie, General Manager, Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC) speaking at the meeting. PICTURE BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

The General Manager of DEC’s Marketing Department, Mr Zhou Jie, said the company already had some presence in Morocco and Tunisia apart from Ghana and other East African countries and that what attracted the company to do business in Africa included reliable information, the capacity of countries and security.

Dongfang’s capacity

Addressing the journalists, the Deputy Minister of Party Work Department, Ms. Yan Haiying said since DEC began operations it had installed a total capacity of 280 gigawatts of electricity in more than 68 countries in the world, equal to the total installation of England.

Ms Yan Haiying, Deputy Minister of Party Work Department, Dongfang Electric Corporation. PICTURE BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

She said the company had also done projects in more than 20 countries along the Belt & Road initiative which is being championed by China, with a total value of over US$ 10 billion.

Dongfang, a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) developer started operating its first workshop in Sichuan in 1958 and will celebrate its 60^th anniversary in 2018 but will celebrate 30 years of the supply of power equipment.

Its first international project was in Pakistan and it is the world’s largest supplier of hydro power technology, the largest equipment manufacturer and a major international contractor.

Starting off with the manufacture of 300kw equipment the company now mass produces 1,000 mw ultra super critical thermal power units.

Writer’s email: edmund.asante@graphic.com.gh

Facts

·        ⧪ The Dongfang Electric International Corporation (DEC) has entered the clean power market with the production of nuclear, wind and solar power components. It has also ventured into sea water desalination equipment, electric vehicles and environment protection equipment.

o⧪One third of electricity used by China is generated with DEC equipment.

·         DEC has supplied equipment and services to more than 40 countries worldwide and districts and since 2004 it has maintained the world number one ranking in the annual production of power equipment.

⧪DEC has also prepared reserves for future energy demands and has been ranked among the first 250 companies in the world consistently for 30 years.

This story was written on June 7, 2017