ghana news PDS to build new electricity lines for Gbese, others

The Power Distribution Services Ghana Ltd. (PDS) is to construct a new electricity network to replace the existing fault-prone cables in three communities in the Greater Accra Region.

The communities currently rely on weak, old and inaccessible underground cables which were constructed in the post-colonial era by Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

The beneficiary communities are Gbese, Akoto Lantey and the London Market, all in Accra.

Manager

The PDS Korle-Bu District Manager, Solomon Tsawe, who disclosed this at a community durbar organised at the forecourt of the Gbese Mantse palace, said  the increasing population and unplanned development of the area had negatively affected the economic loading of the underground cables laid over 50 years ago.

“It is almost impossible to trace underground cable faults in these localities without entering customers’ bedrooms and living area.

Sometimes because people have built over these cables, we need to negotiate with occupants of the house, excavate the cables for mending and pay for the reinstatement of the bedroom floor over the cables,” he said.

He added that such challenges delayed the location and rectification of faults, leading to long periods of outages in the area.

Assembly Member

The Assemblyman for the Kinka Electoral Area, Mr Emmanuel Botchway, pledged the support of the community to the re-networking project, complaining that the frequent outages suffered by the community negatively affected commercial activity in the community.

Other issues raised at the community durbar included the negative effects of illegal connections on customers and the company, need for energy conservation, processes of electricity service acquisition and reasons for recent outages.