Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has accused the contractor handling the Kaduna-Kano rail project of playing politics with the construction work.
The minister, while describing the pace of work as ‘extremely low’, said the contractor, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) needs to focus on the project.
He also accused the contractor of not having adequate equipment on ground to execute the project.
Amaechi, while admitting that inadequate funding was one of the challenges affecting the pace of work, noted that it was stated in the contract that the contractor should also source for funds.
The minister however promised to meet with the contractors on Wednesday to know the way forward.
He said this on Saturday in Kano during the inspection tour of the rail project and the Dala inland dry port.
The former River State governor also said the contractor had been given some money to commence work on the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail project.
Amaechi said: “Going by the pace of work, I think CCECC is beginning to play politics. They should move away from politics and focus on construction and I think they need to complete the Kaduna-Kano rail. I will not say more than this until I meet with them on Wednesday.
“The speed is extremely slow, equipment is supposed to be over 2,000 and all they have brought so far is 541.
“They claimed that over 300 is in Kaduna. People have gone to check that. Even if you add that together, it will be about 800 equipment, 800 as compared to 2,000 that they are supposed to bring is nothing and it means something is wrong somewhere.”
On the fund, he said: “I know they will claim we have not funded them but part of their responsibility in the contract is to look for the money and CCECC has not brought money.
“The Chinese are no longer giving us money for more than three years to four years now. So, they cannot afford to delay it because it is their responsibility to look for the money. That is what the Chinese must do.
“I will only address the press and the country when I finish meeting with them on Wednesday, I will tell them my mind and if there is no difference, I will tell the country what is going on.”
On whether quality won’t be compromised while trying to meet up with the deadline, Amaechi said: “Quality is not our problem as TEAM is there to ensure that. Our problem is speed.”
On the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail project, he said: “We have given them some money and we think they should start work.
“According to them, they said they will start building camps but for me who is not an engineer, camps don’t matter to me, all I want to see is the laying of tracks, so on Wednesday, CCECC must tell us because we cannot award contract to one company and the company goes to sleep.
“We have paid them some money for Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, so they must tell us why they are not on site. You cannot say there is no land, it is an old track, so they must start work.”
Briefing journalists on availability of e-ticketing platform for the Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri corridor to ease the sale of tickets, the Managing Director of Nigerian Railway Corporation(NRC), Fidet Okhiria, said the corporation hopes to commence by the end of this month.
He said: “We have gone to an advanced stage. Yesterday the final negotiation with the ICRC and team selected went successfully. By next week, the ICRC will take it up to the next stage but we are still targeting the end of March.”
Speaking on when the Dala Inland Dry Port would be declared port of origin and destination, the Managing Director of the port, Ahmed Rabiu said: “It is feasible to commence operation at the Dala Inland Dry Port within the next couple of weeks.
“Access road we have been guaranteed would be completed within a week, and other facilities will be completed soon.
“We assure you that on 31st March, this place will be ready and it will just wait for the minister to do the last bit which is to declare it as a port of origin and destination because all the equipment is ready.”