Lagos – Ibadan Rail Line: Amaechi Dissatisfied With The Pace Of Work
Oru Leonard
The Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon Chibuike Amaechi has said that he is dissatisfied with the progress being made by the CCECC on the building of stations along the Lagos- Ibadan rail.
Hon Amaechi who was with the Minister of state for Transportation Gbemisola Saraki, the Chairman Railway Board, Alhaji Ibrahim Alhassan and the Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Mr Fidet Okhiria, spoke after the monthly steering committee meeting and inspection of work on the railway on Monday, September 23, 2019, says for the Ibadan-Kano rail which is the next phase of the work, he will Insist on more machinery and men on ground before work begins.
“CCECC has not done too well. I used the phrase too well because at a time, they did us proud by trying to push this job. They claim that at the end of the last government, we were owing them some money and we had not given approvals for the extra and additional jobs. But that’s not an excuse because we will still have given the approval. So they have slowed down so badly. We need to get them to that speed that they were before the last government was dissolved”, Amaechi stated.
The Minister revealed that CCECC has been paid on Friday last week, and the cabinet has approved the additional and extra works so that there will be no excuse.
On whether he felt the delay by CCECC was deliberate, Amaechi said “Well, certainly in business nobody wants to put their money where they are not sure. But now that the cabinet has approved, they have no excuse”.
The Minister said on the Ibadan-Kano rail, work will begin simultaneously at both ends to avoid unnecessary delay.
“The Ibadan to Kano has been awarded. The only thing that is delaying it is the loan. Once we get it, we will start from Kano to Kaduna and see how we will go from Ibadan to Ilorin”.
On the Kajola rail manufacturing company, he said that a date has been given by the vice president for the flag off but did not say when.
Rt. Hon. Amaechi was of high hope that the Lagos- Ibadan rail project would be delivered on Schedule.
According to him, “The DG of public procurement thinks it is not possible. But rather than believe his engineering experience, let me believe the contractor. That’s the target. “There was a time the contractor was working day and night. Maybe they might begin to work day and night to achieve the deadline”.
Responding to a question on what was slowing down work at the Apapa end of the work which is expected to clear the gridlock at Apapa ,the Minister attributed it to Transmission.
“From Iju to Apapa, we have problems of urbanisation. So we will have to deal with the issues of water pipes, gas, and fuel. The bridges are not a major problem. We have dealt with that”.
“Flour Mills will not be a problem. We will talk with them, pay them compensation and demolish the portion we need, but there is a pipe they have which is very dangerous, it comes from Escravos and the moment you shut that pipe, there will be fuel scarcity. But we can’t afford fuel scarcity so we can’t afford to shut it down”.
Amaechi also said that efforts are being made to get the coastal rail project started.
“I am from Rivers State and it’s important that we do that. We already applied for a loan. If we get the loan, will start the segment from Port Harcourt to Warri and from Benin to Onitsha. The loan will be from China but not China EXIM bank”, he assured.
