Out of 16 firms that expressed interest in the Ghana-Burkina Faso interconnectivity railway project between the port of Tema and Ouagadougou, four of them  have successfully submitted their qualification documents.

They include; China Railway Construction Engineering Limited, Frontline Consortium, China Railway Number 10 Consortium and African Global Development.

The remaining 12 were reportedly not successful because they were unable to submit their qualification documents as requested by a Joint Evaluation Committee and a Transaction Advisor.

According Ghanian media, Graphic Online, the expression of interest by the firms followed advertisements simultaneously published in Ghana and Burkina Faso to invite interested private sector investors to partner the governments of the two countries for the project on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

The objective of the railway interconnectivity project is to facilitate trade and development between both countries through an efficient transport service for both freight and passengers.

At a brief ceremony to officially open the bid session for the request for qualification stage in Accra on Monday , the Nation’s Minister of Railways Development, Mr Joe Ghartey, said an independent Joint Evaluation Committee with membership from both Ghana and Burkina Faso would immediately commence an evaluation process of the documents presented for the qualification stage from today.

He expressed the hope that the procurement processes would be completed on time to allow them to meet the deadline for the start of construction of the project within the first quarter of 2020.