The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has reacted to the ongoing work at the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Rail Gauge.
Amaechi expressed sadness over the rate at which work is going on at the site. According
to PM News, Amaechi blamed the China Civil Engineering Construction
Corporation (CCECC) for the slow pace of work at the ongoing
construction of Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge rail line.
Amaechi expressed disappointment on the progress of work done so far while inspecting the project on Monday. The
minister chided the contractor for slowing down work and track-laying
from Distance Kilometre (DK) 121 to 157 of the Lagos-Ibadan rail line
project.
According to him, the Federal Government plans to commence transportation of cargoes from the sea ports through the standard rail gauge by December.
“Since
you came to this segment of the project, you have not done anything
here. To those of you who are here with me on this inspection, did you
see any work going on? There is no work at all.
“From
Kilometre 121 to 157, there is no work at all; and you have no reason
whatsoever not to have worked, because we are not owing you. You are doing no job, absolutely no job,” he said.
Amaechi also said that the Federal Executive Council would discuss the issue of the project during its next meeting. The minister said he was dissatisfied with the contractor, saying the company had failed to implement the affected section of the project as earlier discussed with them at a previous meeting.
According to him, the Federal Government has paid its own counterpart fund for the project.
He
said that the China construction company had no acceptable reason to
tender for its inaction, since there was no funding problem on execution
of the contract.
The minister, however, said that the contractor had pleaded for more time to meet the May deadline for the delivery date of the project.
In a related development, the Federal Government has ordered two additional coaches for the Abuja-Kaduna rail service route to solve the passengers upsurge.
Mr
Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation, gave the directive on
Monday during the monthly inspection of the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan rail
line at Ologuneru, Ibadan.
There
was an upsurge of passengers on the Abuja-Kaduna train service due to
the activities of kidnappers along the Abuja-Kaduna road, NAN reports.
Amaechi said the Nigerian Railway Corporation would move two additional coaches from Itakpe-Warri rail lines to that route. He also warned that staff caught in illegal sales of tickets would be arrested and prosecuted accordingly.
“We
are going there to arrest anyone caught up with tickets racketeering.
The long queue at that axis is because coaches are not enough. The
reason we bought those coaches was for people to sit down. But people
are standing, they shouldn’t stand. But, I have directed that we should
move two coaches from Itakpe-Warri to Kaduna-Abuja. Today is the first
day that I will be giving this directive.
“The first directive I gave was to move two coaches from Itakpe-Warri to Lagos. When
we saw the problem today, I told the MD, to move two coaches to Kaduna
from Itakpe-Warri because, there are no much passengers in that axis,”
he said.
Amaechi stated that it would be difficult to manage and control passengers standing in the train because of the upsurge.
“The
long term plan is that we are going to China between 24th and 30th to
inspect the new coaches and locomotives we are buying for Lagos-Ibadan. We
may be under pressure to put that on the Abuja-Kaduna route and if we
do that, that would reduce the pressure at the moment, when there are
more coaches and locomotives, the pressure will cool down,” he said.
Recall
that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has promised to
improve rail transport to make transportation both easier and cheaper
for Nigerians and it has swung into action.
Amaechi,
said that until there is a connection between Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri to
Lokoja and Abuja that is when more passengers would use the train on
that axis. “The
plan is on for the connectivity from Warri-Itakpe-Lokoja and we are
talking to someone who want to build a park at Itakpe to carry
passengers by road to Abuja, pending when we get approval and funding to
link Abuja to Itakpe.”
It is believed
that after the construction of the various rails, then, transport of
people and goods will be easier and faster as the pressure on road
transport will be reduced. Nigerians will also have more transport choices to make.
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