Members of the inter-ministerial committee on railway infrastructure and the committee on the transport of passengers have brainstormed on ways to curb the number of accidents along railway lines in the country.
This was during the extra-ordinary session of the committees which held at the Yaounde Hilton. The committee members unanimously faulted the defiant behaviors of locals residing along these networks as main cause of the accidents.
Chairing the session, Transport Minister, Jean Ernest Masena Ngale Bibehe, recalled the evolution of defiant acts occurring along railway lines. He said the records have risen from 79 in 2018 to 109 in 2020.
The minister cited issues including obstruction of railways with stationary vehicles, illegal occupation of land along the railway lines, acts of vandalism on rail infrastructure particularly around rail road crossings, strike actions and even indiscipline of passengers as some of the prominent defiant acts causing accidents.
Minister Bibehe pointed out that securing the rail network can no longer be done by CAMRAIL alone but by all and sundry. He called on members of the inter-ministerial committee including officials from the ministry of Defence, the General Delegation for National Security and others to propose urgent solutions which will in the long run reduce the losses incurred by government from acts of insecurity in the sector.
The committees also examined statistics for the past three years which indicated doe instance that, in 2020, insecurity resulting from defiant acts along the rail networks affected the circulation of 111 trains. This, the committee further revealed resulted to the loss of 269 exploitation hours (12 days) of activity.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
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