The Federal Government remains irrevocably committed to delivering the Lagos-Ibadan Standard gauge by December this year, Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed said on Tuesday.
At a joint interview with his colleague in the Ministry of Transportation Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Mohammed said with the commencement of the track laying by the contractor, delivering the project is realistic.
He said the contractor has two track lying equipment, each of which can lay 1.2 km per day. “If we can cover between 2.4 to 2.6 kms per day, it is possible to deliver by December and all of us, including the contractor, the consultants have agreed to ensure that this is realised.”
Mohammed said he has come to see for himself what the government has been doing for transportation in order to showcase to Nigerians what the Myhammadu Buhari has been doing. We are happy that not only is the project going smoothly, but that the contractor has employed about 7000 Nigerians since it commenced construction 18 months ago.
He said: “As you already know, this is our flagship project. At our meeting today with the contractors, both the contractor and the consultants have seen why they must double up and ensure that we deliver on schedule. There is nothing to India ate that this project may suffer and its delivery date changed.
Also speaking the Minister of Transportation disclosed that 60 percent of solutions have been found to the challenges besetting the project.
He said: ” We have taken another look at the entire stretch of the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge project and I can tell you I and the Minister of Transportation are happy at the pace of work and we are convinced that we can deliver by December”.
He also disclosed that the Nigerian Army has not only agreed to relocate but that funds would be disbursed to them later this month to enable them move out for work to commence.
He assured that; “rain will not pose any problem to track laying, adding that only civil works would be suspended during the rain season, until the August break. Civil work will resume between September and October and it would not pose any threat to completion by December.”
On the preliminary agreement with General Electric. GE, on the modernisation of the nation’s 3,400 kms narrow gauge, Amaechi said reconstruction of the entire spectrum will cost another $50m.
He said: “What GE would be doing before the end of June is to do partial rehabilitation of the rail lines. Currently we are doing about 16 to 18 kilometers per hour, so they will rehabilitate the lines so we can at least increase to 40 kilometers per hour and then they will rehabilitate both Lagos and Kano to Funtua, Kaura and Namada, Port Harcourt to maiduguri to repair another 15 million dollars by GE.
He said GE is a consortium and they have about three to four companies that are working with. “While that is going on, we continue the construction of the standard gauge so that the economic and political pressures we are suffering from different quarters would be resolved,” he added.