The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi on Saturday in Moniya, Ibadan, Oyo State capital disclosed that the delay in completion of the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan rail project was as a result of urban renewal, noting that such should not be the case of Ibadan-Kano project.

The minister, while speaking to the press shortly after inspecting the pace of work from Iju, Lagos to Ibadan, said that by his assessment there was a huge improvement in the work.

He said: “We are dealing with urban renewal, we are building new flyover, overhead bridges, underpasses, pipes, sewage and we pray that we don’t meet it in Ibadan to Kano.

“If we will meet anything like that, it won’t be in the magnitude of Lagos because it was a total chaos and we didn’t get the kind of support we needed initially but now we have it.

“The support could be the people and the fact is that some people are still in court over this because lands were taken from them. We are confronting the challenges of stealing. We are beginning to hear about stealing. It wasn’t there at all for those who live in Lagos and Ibadan but now we are hearing that people are stealing our equipment.”

The minister said that there had been an improvement in terms of work done so far.

“We will all agree that there is huge improvement. From the 20th of December when we will carry out the next inspection, we will get to the last station in Moniya which means that focus will no longer be on the track but on the completion of the stations and communication and signal. Once we get communication and signaling, we are out of Lagos-Ibadan.”

Speaking on the delay in completing the stations, Amaechi maintained that the argument is that, “CCECC is willing to complete the stations but the equipment have not arrived from China and our argument is that they should get some things from Nigeria.

“Before, they wanted to import glasses and doors as if we don’t have in Nigeria, the pressure we are putting is now making them buy the glasses and doors in Nigeria and they are installing which will quicken the process.”

He further revealed that the contractors were still expecting pipes and other things and they requested that we give them one or two months to complete the stations.

“They said by the time we come for inspection on the 20th of December, the track will get to the last station at Ibadan and the issue will now be the completion of stations, communications and signaling so that we can commence test running on the 30th of November.

“We don’t have enough coaches and locomotives but we will start with as many as we can take pending when the 20 locomotives that we imported arrive. They will arrive end of December or latest second week in January, 2020.”

He said that contractors would be leaving site latest April 2020.

He said: “We are no longer giving ourselves the time, the contractors are the ones giving us the time. The initial contract was from Ebute Meta but because we wanted it to end at the seaports, we extended it and that is where the challenges are.

“The fact is that they can get to Ebute Meta soon but getting there without getting to Apapa will not achieve much because we need to clear the gridlock and the easiest way to do it is to get the track to seaport, that way, cargoes will be loaded to wagons and taken to Ibadan and thank God we have gotten contract for Ibadan-Kano, as soon as we get the money, we will start work and the gridlock will be cleared,” Amaechi said.

(ThisDay)

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