April 2020 has been slated as the completion date for the $2 billion Lagos-Ibadan railway project, according to BusinessDay.
The Details: This was made public by Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi who inspected the project last weekend.
Giving details of the ongoing standard gauge project, Amaechi was quoted saying: “The initial contract was from Ebute Metta, but because the federal government wanted it to end at the seaports, so it had to be extended to facilitate the movement of goods and services out of the seaport and to decongest trailer and container gridlock.”
The Minister said attention had been diverted to the completion of the stations and communication and signal terminals since contractors were advocating for the speedy completion of the railway line.
He also hinted that the railway line for Ibadan-Kano would begin as soon a contract is gotten for the project.
To make the work faster, the Minister advised contractors to make use of Nigerian materials so the project could meet the April 2020 deadline.
” Before they wanted to import glasses and doors as if we don’t have in here, the pressure we are putting is now making them buy the glasses and doors in Nigeria and they are installing them which will quicken the process. They are still expecting pipes and other things and they requested that we give them one or two months to complete the stations
“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.
What you should know: The Lagos-Ibadan Railway Project which was awarded in 2012 under the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan, was meant to last for three years. The project which was expected to start in 2012 and end in 2015 faced several delays. The project is being executed in six phases, projected to cover 2,733 kilometres.
