Following an unsatisfactory level of completion of the Lagos- Ibadan railway as seen by the January inspection tour, the Honourable Minister for Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, summoned the Chairman, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) Group, Zhao Dianlong for an emergency inspection of the rail project.
The emergency inspection started at the Ebute Meta railway yard and proceeded to Apapa to inspect the progress of work before entering into a meeting.
Speaking to journalist after the inspection, the MD NRC , My Fidet Okhiria attributed some of the delay to the fact that some of the construction needed was not originally in the plan.
“It was not part of the initial contract. It is part of the additional work done. There were supposed to be physical level crossing in some axis but the Minister insisted that we must obey the law and government policy put in place and he said, there won’t be direct crossing. He said it will either be underpass or overpass because it is Federal Government’s policy on rail and road crossing. So those are the additional works and they have to design and some of the designs have just been approved and they have to acquire more space because when you do the bridge, you don’t expect it to fall within the rail corridor. We expect it to extend beyond it”
Responding to questions on reports of vandalism on the rail tracks, he said their had been a reduction in the activities of vandals.
“We have had some respite in the last two weeks and the Police have also lived up to their responsibility by ensuring that they pick those that are involved and charge them to court immediately. Once they charge to court, it depends on the judge who sometimes detain them for two months or more and I think their colleagues are hearing it and that is why they have reduced”.
Okhiria said the situation at the port has contributed to the delay in getting additional coaches working.
“I think in the next one week, the ship carrying the rolling stock will be able to berth. It is not just the railway that makes the economy and we cannot close the port because of our items but we hope by next week, the ship will be able to berth and we will be able to offload”.
On his part, the Minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi expressed satisfaction with the progress made since Monday when he last inspected.
“I think There is some remarkable progress from the day we came to today. If we saw the number of staff we saw on site today,, we would not have complained”.
“If they continue with this kind of speed, we expect that we should be able to commence activities on the track”.
“Going from here to d sea port, we see remarkable improvement meaning that something was wrong before their Chairman came. I am going now to have. Another meeting with him and we will Have a total conversation about moving forward”.
Amaechi refused to comment on the completion date saying he prefers to let things unfold. He however said the contractors were not lkely to have legal issues arising from not completing the contract on schedule because of additional work.
“But they made an argument which we can’t also fault. They said additional works which we gave them 6months for each additional work. If you add 6months to the time, we are talking about next year”.
“So instead of looking at law, look at practicality and compel them to speed up because by the time I met them yetseday, it was not important that I talk about the law because they will say okay we will complete eon may, but what about the additional work on the stations? On the tracks, flyover, underpasses. It affected the time of completion. So you can not go to the law, you can only be practical”.
“As far as I’m concerned, mentally I’m almost out of Lagos. I’m basically trying to focus on Kano Kaduna, Ibadan to Ilorin and Ilorin to Minna and then to Abuja”.
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