The Nation Newspaper

Category: Transportation

  • VIS to truck owners: partner Lagos govt to reduce carnage

    The Director of Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS), Afiz Toriola, has appealed to  stakeholders in the transport sector to partner the Lagos State government to reduce carnage on the roads.

    Toriola spoke at a forum organised by the Lagos State Computerised Vehicle Inspection Service (LACVIS) for stakeholders in the logistics and haulage industry.

    He said with the establishment of LACVIS, the state have stopped the manual inspection of vehicles and replaced them with computerised inspection, which is at par with international standards.

    LACVIS General Manager Mr. Segun Ogunnaike said computerised testing would reduce carnage as it has reduced human errors.

    He however urged owners and operators to partner the government by ensuring that regular and voluntary checks were carried out on vehicles, including articulated tankers and trucks in the state.

    He led other LACVIS and VIS workers in unveiling the centre at the event.

    Ogunnaike said 10 vehicle centres had been established across the state with the plan to increase them to 57 in the next three years.

    The representative of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Ms Mosumola Samuel, emphasised that road accidents would reduce if the stakeholders complied with stipulated standards.

    Mr. Soji Oni, who represented the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) president, expressed the readiness of insurers to partner the stakeholders to reduce risks.

    VIS Driving Institute Director, Mr. Akin-George Fashola, called on the stakeholders to embrace the state Driving Institute, adding that it has the enough facilities to train drivers.

    He appealed to the stakeholders to ensure that their members obtained genuine licences and documentations from approved centres.

    During the interactive session, stakeholders commended the  government for establishing the  inspection centres. They urged it to expedite action in the establishment of more centres.

    They called on the government to ensure that articulated vehicles  from other states were inspected.

    The stakeholders asked other regulatory agencies to ensure that the importers of substandard spare parts were prosecuted.

  • 11 years after, Abuja light rail takes off

    The inauguration of the Abuja light rail last Thursday by President Muhammadu Buhari will, no doubt, open a new vista in public transportation in the nation’s capital, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE and FAITH YAHAYA.

    Last Thursday’s inauguration of the Abuja Light rail was a landmark. It was the first intra-city standard gauge shuttle service by any government, a promise fulfilled by the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

    It is no fluke that the rail system was kicked off in Abuja, which, according to the National Population Commission (NPC), is the fourth most populous city in Nigeria, after Lagos, Kano and Ibadan, growing at the rate of 7.1 percent,  that could overtake them by the turn of the decade.

    With this growth index, it is not out of place to have competing modes of transport like the urban mass transit, taxis, tricycles, popularly called Keke NAPEP,l and motorcycles. The modern railway system would further add to the mix, making livability index of the city more intriguing.

    By design Abuja, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), including most private businesses, are concentrated in the Central Business Area and the Central Business District.

    Workers go from satellite towns, such as Kubwa, Gwagwa, Kuje, Mpape, Kasrshi, Gwagwalada, Suleja, Kwali, Mararaba, and Karu  to the city centre daily. The result is a congested city centre that has distorted the city’s original plan.

    To solve the problem and reduce travel time of about 40 minutes from any of the satellite towns to the city, the light rail system was conceived as apart of the city’s masterplan in 1977. It was intended to form the spine of public transport system in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The Abuja rail mass transit system was designed primarily to move people within and between the satellite towns.

    The commuter rail is, therefore, crucial for sustainable integration of the satellite towns into the metropolitan  transport.

    To facilitate the development of the rail mass transit, it was phased based on demand and financial resources. The system was designed to integrate with the National Rail Network. Divided into six lots, and has a length of 290 kilometres.

    They are Lot 1A (23km)  from Idu to Kubwa, and 1B (26.78km) from Ring Road I through to Gwagwa. Lot 2: from Gwagwa via interchange centre to Nyanya/Karu (51km); Lot 3: From Transportation Centre via Idu Industrial Zone to Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport (27.245km); Lot 4:From Kuje Satellite town to Karshi Satellite town with the remaining legs of the Transit way line 2; (90km) Lot 5:From Kubwa via Bwari to Suleja (31km) and Lot 6: From Airport via Kuje and Gwagwalada to Dobi (43km).

    The project was awarded to CCECC Nigeria Limited on May 23, 2007, but work started two years later. The revised contract sum was $823,540,545.87 for the double track rail line. Though the original date of completion  was May 28, 2011, the contract was revised again on the  August 24, 2014 with the completion date W slated for last December 31.

    The Lots 1A and 3 comprises  1,435km gauge, 12 stations,  50 culverts 13 railway bridges, 25 flyover bridges, rolling stock depot comprises of 21 buildings, namely: Operation Control Centre, Training Centre, Maintenance Crew Staff quarters, Comprehensive Maintenance building, oil pump room, waste water treatment room, and deep well pump room.

    The segments, which were inaugurated were Lots 1A and 3,  covered only 45.245km. This shows that only 16 percent of the rail network has been covered.

    The administration, which met the project at 63 percent completion, lauded itself for completing it within the revised time frame, though with about six month’s extension.

    FCT Transportation Secretary, Kayode Opeifa said: “There should be no politics with this. This project took eight years to get to 63 per cent; it was almost becoming an elephant project if not for the seriousness and commitment of the government to finish it. When oil was selling at N110, they never finished it. It is not about politics. While we commended the past government for initiating and driving it, the truth is that the past administration had all the opportunities in the world to complete this project, but it was not properly managed. We don’t have time for politics and what is important is that we met it at 63 per cent after eight years and we completed it within three years.”

    Inaugurating the project, a very pleased President Buhari described its completion as a dream come true. He praised the Minister of FCT for a job well done.

    He said: “This accomplishment clearly demonstrates our commitment to addressing critical infrastructural projects and keeping with the ideals of the Change Agenda to ensure prudence in the management of public resources, value for money considering the huge investments in this project. Transportation is the live wire of any city. I am very optimistic that a modern rail service would bring about a boost to the FCT economy and greatly enhance social life. I am aware that what we have on ground today are coaches meant to provide skeletal services as we await the main set of the rolling stock for full operations.

    “I have been briefed on the outcome of the Ministers of FCT and Finance’s recent visit to China, during which the MoUs and agree-ments for the procurements of the main rolling stock were signed. May I, therefore, assure Nigerians of Federal Government’s continued support for all the negotiations towards the realisation of the Abuja Light Rail system. What we have in the Federal Capital Territory is another evidence that we are a government that delivers on its promises. I have observed keenly other milestones that this Administration has achieved, especially in the areas of education, public utilities and infrastructure development.

    “I commend the efforts of the Minister of FCT as well as the support and patience of the residents, while we are working to improve the city’s transportation service. I am thankful to the Government and people of China for their investment in the Nigerian economy. I commend the CCECC Limited – the contracting firm, for the quality of work and timely delivery of this project.

    “Let me place on record the Nigerian government’s appreciation to the Government of China and the EXIM Bank of China for their support on this and many other projects being executed in the country. This gesture further cements the existing cordial relations and developmental partnership between Nigeria and the People’s Republic of China. I would also like to thank our Nigerian consultants, Messrs Transurb Technirail Consult Limited for their services.”

    The President urged the management of the rail services to, “ensure efficient operations, good customer service and maintenance culture of the rail.”

    Opeifa also hinted that the rail system would provide 100,000 direct or indirect jobs for Abuja residents. He said in line with international best practices, the FCTA administration was determined to ensure that the rail system was affordable to residents. He maintained that the administration would make the 12 rail stations attractive to users to earn more money, especially for those living around the stations. As part of the attraction, passengers, he said, would enjoy two weeks of free ride on the train.

    On the next phase of the project, the FCT Minister Muhammad Bello said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved $1.3 billion for the construction of a standard gauge, which would cover 32.54 km from Nnamdi Azikiwe Expressway(Garki Area l) – Gwagwa – Gbazango Station to Kubwa.

    “The Federal Executive Council approved the project in 2017 for construction by CCECC at a cost of US$1.3 billion. We hope that the Minister of Finance would consider putting this key project in the next borrowing plans, we hope that the Minister of Budget and National Planning would agree to it, and that the National Assembly would approved it and that China Exim Bank would fund it as a mark of goodwill for the cordial relationship between our two countries,” Bello asserted.

    Though he could not ascertain when the entire rail projects would be completed, Bello expresses the hope that his successors in office would give priority to rail system as a critical means of mass transportation.

    He said the FCT Administration has concluded with Exim Bank of China for the supply of coaches, including their maintenance for three years at a cost of $194 million. The coach presently used has the capacity to carry 390 passengers.

    He said the Exim Bank of China would fund the project with $157 million or 85 per cent, while FCTA would bring in a counterpart fund of $37million (15 per cent).

  • Rail wagons as panacea to fuel tanker fires

    The June 28 Lagos fuel tanker fire has brought to the fore again the debate over the best means of combustible product. Experts argue that the use of railway tank wagons will address the problem, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    The story is not whether the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has the capacity to move wet cargoes, especially inflammable liquid such as petroleum products, at least closer to the end users. The question is when the NRC add this to its bouquet of services.

    The missing link in this matrix are marketers, many of who continue to hesitate to move by rail a commodity that has almost become an exclusive preserve of the road and motorised means of transportation.

    Though moving refined petroleum products has for decades been exclusively by pipelines, these got ruptured as vandals took over.

    To bridge the supply chain, marketers turned to the roads, flooding the already bad and abandoned network of roads across the country with equally rickety vehicles, with locally fabricated tank compartments.

    Over the last four decades that the roads have become almost the exclusive means of moving petroleum products, there has been ceaseless, but futile agitation to change the narrative as the roads began to cave in due to sheer pressure, resulting in fatal accidents.

    For a short period, the railway came in and was actually moving the product to Kano from the Atlas Cove at Apapa, Lagos.

    Rather than sustain the initiative, the contract ran into a storm and had to be abandoned. But railway claimed it had much more sophisticated rolling stocks to move the commodity for any marketer, especially with its acquisition of modern tank wagons in 2012,  for those who may want to patronise it.

    That was when railway took delivery of its first set of 20 DOT 111 tank cars, otherwise called tank wagons, built to the United States standard. A year later, it added another 20, making a total of 40 tank cars.

    In the main, oil marketers in 2015, signified their intention to have the NRC lift their products and started negotiating with the corporation. They, however, slowed down when concerns about the wagons’ safety were raised.

    The NRC insisted that it had since doused these agitations, as it claimed the wagons were industry’s best, but the marketers were  yet to be brought back to the table.

    Capacity

    Whereas a petrol tanker has 33,000 litres carrying capacity, checks revealed that each of the wagons’ capacity is 45,000 litres. The 40 wagons if fully operational could move 1.8 million litres of petroleum products from Apapa, Lagos to Kano.

    The 1.8 million litres, it was further gathered, equalled 550 petroleum tankers taken off the road, with the tanker chain  entering Lagos put at close to 8,000 daily, 550 tankers would be a good slice that could be growing geometrically as the corporation acquires more rolling stock.

    This, no doubt, would have brought the needed relief to the roads, as the tankers would have moved in as last mile operators, to move the product from the inland tank farms to sales destinations.

    What happened to the initial enthusiasm about the wagons and their capacity to the narratives of wet cargo movements?

    What happened to the September 2015 letter by the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) to move its oil? In the letter signed by its Executive Secretary, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, MOMAN hoped that the partnership would be mutually beneficial.

    The agreement was in reaction to the incessant accidents involving petroleum tankers in which lives were lost and properties destroyed.

    Though the deal is yet to take off, MOMAN still believes in using rail to freight its cargoes. Olawore, said rail haulage would no doubt make the roads safer.

    Challenges

    Though officials of the oil marketers refused to comment on the issue, a top official of the NRC, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said lack of accessibility to the tank farms might be a major challenge. Many of the tank farms operators were said to have flouted the consideration for rail cargo, which made their farms inaccessible to rail services.

    “Out of all the oil majors operating tank farms in Apapa, only Mobil and Oando are said to be accessible,” the source said.

    He said the failure to link these tank farms with the rail lines might have caused the delay in the realisation of hauling products by rail.

    NRC Managing Director Fidet Okhiria  told The Nation last week that beyond the question of inaccessibility, the tank wagons might have been caught in the web of what he described as “the Nigerian factor”, which seeks to cripple any good initiative.

    He said only road accidents remained what now make oil marketers to look the way of the railway for alternative to move their products.

    He urged marketers not to shut the window by the partnership with the corporation, adding that oil can be moved twice a week from Lagos to Kano within 72 hours.

    Invariably, 3.6 million litres of petrol or diesel, he said, could be moved by train weekly by the marketers; a development he described as huge, compared to what was being presently moved by road.

    “We believe our customers would have more confidence in us after upgrading the rail tracks. This is because it would assure them that we have reliable tracks and wagons, that can better safeguard their commodities,” Okhiria said.

    He said the wagons is fitted with safety valves to prevent spillage in case of accidents, and now has modern braking systems.

    The corporation, he said, would continue to pursue that objective of linking all the tank farms at Apapa because they are built on its land and “the agreement is that companies should carry their products by rail”.

    Okhiria could not confirm the status of the track laying contract awarded in 2015, which should have been delivered in November of that year. He merely said the corporation has not abandoned the project.

    The tracks, he said, have been upgraded from 60 pap to 85 pap, which means the tracks are stronger and could withstand the pressure associated with cargo services.

    “We are changing the tracks from 60 to 85 rail pap. So, instead of the rail tracks breaking off as a result of heavy load or pressure, it will endure,” he said.

    Since it came to power, the Buhari administration has shown its determination to make the railway a major segment of transportation.

    Power, Works and Housing Minister Mr Babatunde Fashola in 2016, urged marketers to patronise the rail.

    The government, he said, is deepening investments in the rail sector.

    Between 2015 and now, the government has invested massively in a modernised cargo and passenger train system.

    According to Okhiria the wagons remain a strategic window for marketers to make products available nationwide. He disclosed that the lack of patronage had stopped the corporation from acquiring more wagons.

    With more investment aimed at boosting rail’s capacity, Okhiria hopes the country would soon join the one-billion cargo tonnage club, adding that countries with a billion tonnage rail cargo yearly, such as China, Russia, India, and United States also have the highest truck count.

    “We have been clamouring for inter-modal transportation where some cargoes will be moved by road and others by rail. In fact, more than 50 per cent of the containers and other cargoes ought to be moved by rail,” he added.

    Silver lining

    The Managing Director disclosed that the wagons are getting rutted for lack of use. He, however, disclosed that an independent marketer had approached it to move diesel from Lagos to Dagbolu, in Osun State.

    When this finally takes off, perhaps, in the next couple of weeks, it may stimulate other marketers and reopen the window of safer movement of the highly combustible cargo that has caused needless grief to families of concerned victims.

  • Multi-million naira asset rots away at NRC

    The N500 million Safe Train Control (STC) project of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), which is almost completed, seems to have been abandoned, reports ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE.

    The Nigerian Railway Corporation’s Safe Train Control System (STCS) is rotting away at its headquarters in Lagos.

    The corporation’s Managing Director  (MD), Mr Fidet Okhiria, and other top managers are not willing to  speak on.

    When it was unveiled by NRC’s former MD Oluseyi Sijuwade, the system was said to be a critical component of the NRC Master plan  aimed at synchronising operations of the narrow gauge and ensuring that trains on its entire network can travel safely.

    The project, said to be about 50 percent completed, about five years  ago, reportedly cost the Goodluck Jonathan administration N500 million. It was financed by the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), the special vehicle instrument used by the former administration to address the nation’s infrastructure deficit in critical sectors.

    Under the SURE-P, created following the partial removal of fuel subsidy, the Federal Government diverted its share of the re-investible funds into critical programmes, chief among which, was railway modernisation.

    The STCS was part of the projects  executed under the Railway Project Implementation Unit (RPIU) of SURE-P for which over N30 billion was released.

    At its unveiling, all functional locomotives on the Western line, which runs the lucrative Lagos-Kano-Lagos shuttle, had been covered. What remains, it was learnt, was the connection of Eastern Line Port Harcourt to Maiduguri to the system. The latter, it was learnt, was stalled by the insecurity in Borno, though the government had been able to secure and launched train operations from Port-Harcourt through Enugu and up to Gombe, connecting the trains on that line to the computerised system was said to be captured only in the second phase. Even then, the exact figure of the contract was shrouded in mystery.

    The STC, which functions like a Control Tracking Centre, was to become the operational base of the  train network. From the centre, at NRC’s Ebute-Metta headquarters, Lagos, it was easy to monitor by colour coding train movements across the entire network from its Iddo office, to Ijoko, Dagbolu, Abeokuta, Ewekoro, to Ibadan, down to Kafanchan and Kano. Same would ultimately be done on the Eastern line once the insecurity abates.

    With the assistance of electronic gadgets already installed on the locomotives, trains can be controlled and monitored. It eases and obliterated human errors in manual direction of the trains. From the centre, onboard communication becomes easier with the drivers, thereby reducing the infrastructural challenges of network failure as a result of communication via the global satellite system.

    Much more, the speed of any locomotive can be regulated from the centre, in case the affected driver failed to heed to code directive to decelerate.

    The project, which was part of the railway’s modernisation effort, started in 2013. It took about 10 months to achieve the 50 percent completion.

    New deal

    On August 6, 2015, Sijuwade, unveiled the STC installed and manned by a South African consortium, Ansaldo Gear Group and A3&O Limited.

    Sijuwade explained to reporters then that at the touch of a button in the control room, the corporation could monitor real-time, movements of all trains on its tracks, with the aid of the On Board Computers (OBC) installed on its locomotives.

    He said: “Before now, we relied on GSM phones to communicate with our drivers. If there is any breakdown or any accident or any other challenge, our drivers would usually communicate with the engineers via phone. We were never able to monitor all our operations at a glance. This has always come with its own drawbacks as our response time to emergencies had always been negatively affected. You would appreciate it more if you realise that most of our rail assets are in remote inaccessible locations across the country. We have been coping with this challenge for almost a century, since railway started in Nigeria. This will stop with the deployment of this equipment.

    “Among other features, the equipment enables us to monitor and control train speed, to avoid derailment and collision, and also enhance fuel economy. It promotes efficiency and ensures adherence to journey time by drivers; minimises damage to tracks and other infrastructure. It has the capacity to increase frequency of train movement, with consequent increase in revenue,” he added.

    When it was unveiled, the Control Room was not fully completed, but the corporation had engaged some engineers to be trained for the technology transfer when the project was completed.

    In February 2016, the Joint National Assembly Committees on Land Transport, led by Senator Gbenga Ashafa and Senator Shehu Sani, inspected the NRC Control Room. Okhiria and the the corporation’s Director of Operations, Mr. Niyi Ali, explained the project to the lawmakers.

    Okhiria, speaking on the project yesterday, assured that the project has not been abandoned. He however disclosed that lack of funds had stalled its implementation.

    He disclosed that NRC would need $4 billion to complete the project, adding that the Federal Government had approved $1 billion last year and that the contractor would be returning to site soon to resume work.

    “Before they left, they had installed the on-board computers connected with 17 locomotives, but the completion and duration is driven by availability of funds. We have received 80 per cent of the equipment needed and they would soon be returning,” he said.

    Checks revealed that the centre was last opened shortly after the Senators’ visit.

    Not only had all the expatriates returned to their countries, other workers recruited from across the NRC crop of workers have returned to their former departments. The hitherto-busy centre remained desolate, with the Satellite installation with which its operations were hooked to its broad rail network vandalised.

    Commenting in the development, the Managing Director of First Rit Nigeria Limited, Transport and Logistics firm, Mr Eric Umezurike said the STC was the first time the Federal Government’s corporation would  demonstrate its commitment to safety on the rail are captured real time.

    “It was gratifying that the government attempted to modernise train services by controlling the movement and other activities on the aging locomotive engines,” Umezurike said.

    Another logistics expert Morayo Daniels said there were fears that the cost of the completion of the project might have spiralled as a result of inflationary trend over the past five years. He wondered why the government would abandoned a project that aimed at improving on the safety of all locomotives on its tracks across all the two networks.

  • Cyclists seek attention for bicycles

    ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE writes on how the World Bicycle Day (WBD), the maiden edition of which was celebrated on June 3, may change the narratives around biking not only in Nigeria, but across the world.

    IT  was a spectacular sight to behold.The Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi rode on a bicycle.

    Penultimate Tuesday, Amaechi rode in the ministry’s premises to felicitate with the Nigerian Bicycle Federation (NBF) members, who were at the ministry to celebrate the maiden edition of the World Bicycle Day (WBD).

    But he neither rode it to his office nor to the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) chamber as one of his predecessors, the late Chief Ojo Maduekwe did.

    The National Council on Transportation (NCT) has been trying to make bicycle riding  as part of the transportation policy with success.

    In many cities across Nigeria, bicycle riding is not common as it  used to. This is because the roads are not safe.

    Despite this, however, some Nigerians take biking as a means of transportation. Joshua Ademola is one of such people. Decked in blue shirt, suit and tie to match with his hatch bag hung on his back, Ademola said he loves the bicycle as a shuttle alternative.

    Six of his colleagues also do the same. “Gradually, we are 10 using bicycle in my work place and we have secured a park within the company to park for safe-keeping,” Ademola said.

    It is not Ademola and co alone. Some youths have joined the bicycle train, not for fun or sports. In Lagos, there are being suported by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode who has restated his commitment to promoting non-motorised transportation.

     In the beginning

    Nigerians romance with bicycle predates the nation’s independence. Introduced as a means of transportation by the British District Officers (DO) to access the interlands, it soon became the vehicle for the emerging local middle class – teachers, traders and merchants. Then, it  was a status symbol with the Raleigh brand of bicycle as the toast.

    With the industrial boom shortly after independence, motorised vehicles overtook the bicycle and wider roads were constructed across the country, without consideration for other forms of road users outside the motor car users.

    Though the Maduekwe initiative to promote bicycle riding failed to connect with the emerging middle class and business executives, it gave the Federal Road Safety Corps FRSC) an opportunity to develop an enlightenment programe to promote its use.

    FRSC agreed with Maduekwe that bikes are not only healthy, they are the best ways to get out of the perennial gridlocks.

    United States, United Kingdom, China, Holland and Cuba, are countries where bicycles are central to transportation planning and policies.

    FRSC admitted that roads are not riders’friendly, but insisted that bike riding is one sure way to promote healthy living.

    Coming of WBD

    Arguments were canvassed to draw global attention to bicycle riding.

    The declaration of June 3 yearly as World Bicycle Day, according to Worldurbancampaign.org, is the crystalisation of efforts by the World Cycling Alliance (WCA), a network of the European Cyclists Federations, to achieve this.

    At the Paris climate summit COP 21, last year, WCA presented to the UN, the contributions of cycling to global goals on the environment and its commitment to getting “more people to embrace cycling, more often”.

    WCA and ECF Secretary-General Bernhard Ensink said: “There are undeniable evidence that cycling contributes to cleaner environment and with the WBD is to get greater buy-in of cycling by governments and international institutions worldwide.

    ‘’The observance by the UN of a World Bicycle Day, he reasoned, would offer a strong support towards better awareness of the potentials the use of the bicycle has for the achievement of the Global Sustainable Goals.”

    Though the day was announced on April 12, the WCA had on April 28 embarked on a global twitter campaign that saw over 3000 tweets and two million people across the world talk about bicycle and its advantages to health and the environment.

     Benefits

    Ensink argued that bicycles have been promoting increased health,  environmental benefits and sustainable economic growth.

    “Cycling 1km by bike saves 250g of CO2 compared to 1km in a car, cyclists accounted for 111billion Euros in 2013, and provides 4.89 per 1m euros of turnover, compared to car manufacturing which delivers 1.63 jobs. In Europe cycling is responsible for 650.000 jobs – more than the defence and steel industries,” he says.

    Ensink believes the WBD will increase the number of cyclists.

    He believes cycling can  help actualise SDG5, which would empower women and girls, achieve SDG11, which seeks to make cities and settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

    More cycling could save the world $24 trillion by 2050, and about two giga tonnes of CO2 emission yearly, thereby promoting cleaner environment.

    On its page, un.org, the UN said WBD would draw attention to bicycle as a simpler, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit means of sustainable transportation.

    It said the bicycle can also serve as a tool for development and as a means not just of transportation, but also of access to education, health care and sport.

    The UN envisages that the WBD would encourage member-states to devote attention to bicycle.

    Such inclusion, the world body said, would also encourage member-states to improve road safety and integrate biking into sustainable mobility and transport infrastructure planning.

    This, according to it, would further achieve broader health outcomes, particularly the prevention of injuries and non-communicable diseases.

    Wikipedia insisted that a UN bicycle day is out to drum attention to the benefits of using bicycle for transportation and leisure.

    Leszek Sibilski, who led a campaign for a UN Resolution for the Day, eventually gaining the support of Turkmenistan and 56 other countries.

    Novelty

    Happy with the global turn of events, Amaechi assured of the readiness of his ministry to promote cycling.

    According to him, the ministry would liaise with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and state governments to create easy pathways across the country for riders to move around without impediments.

    Amaechi, who received the cyclists, led by the Cycling Federation of Nigeria (CFN) President,  Giandomenico Massari, said: “Apart from competing in sports, cycling also assists to improve the mental well-being of an individual. Creating a path for cyclists is not the job of the Federal Government but FCT and state government.’’

    He added: “If more bicycles are on our roads, it would help reduce traffic. Cyclists need safer routes to ride. If safe paths that would ensure safety are in place, more elites will also be encouraged to ride bicycles.”

    The minister criticised those who see biking as a sign of poverty.

    “Riding bicycle,” Amaechi said, “is not a sign of poverty, but people are afraid of losing their lives because motorists are impatient and motorcycle and bicycle riders are exposed to danger without a dedicated lane.’’

    He said though the Federal Goverment may not be able to create dedicated lanes, he assured that it would mobilise the states through their commisioners of transportation to do this.

    “States can create bicycle paths. If this is done in a state like Lagos, most people will be going to work on bicycles because the traffic alone from Third Mainland Bridge to the mainland is enough to stress one out,” Amaechi said.

    Massari hinted that the WBD would help to resuscitate cycling culture and improve healthy living.

    According to him, their visit was part of their advocacy to draw the government’s attention to creating safer routes to encourage bicycle riding.

    CFN, he added, would collaborate with the FRSC and other stakeholders to organise a cycling rally in Abuja.

    The ministry’s Director, Road Transport and Mass Transit Mrs. Anthonia Ekpa assured the cyclists of their support.

    “I am happy that Nigerian cyclists successfully joined the rest of the world to celebrate the World Bicycle Day. The event was remarkable because riders have their way on the road without traffic or hitches.”

    ‘’A dedicated lane, either at the road shoulders or median as is the global practice, would further help to drive home the needed support for safety being advocated by riders.’’

    Patrick Adenusi believes with the UN backing, biking may soon become a preferred mode of transportation for its sundry benefits. He foresees bicycle manufacturing companies return like the pre-60s era. “With 198 million people, 60 percent of which are youths, Nigeria, he said, has huge market for bicycle manufacturing. It could also create massive jobs.

  • Getting speed train off the ground

    The Lagos-Ibadan commercial speed train service is expected to come on stream in December, 19 months after it was launched by then Acting President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed gave the project a pass mark after an inspection. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE reports.

    For the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, last Tuesday’s tour of the speed train project by his Information and Culture counterpart, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was a welcome development.

    The tour convinced Mohammed that Amaechi can deliver  the Buhari administration’s flagship train project on schedule.

    Even Mohammed’s media team agreed that the contractor – China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) – will, in the next seven months, give Nigeria its first commercially-viable speed train route, 35 years after the botched Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri standard gauge rail line.

    In the last 14 months, new cities,    have been springing up from the tropical virgin forests of the West. At Abule-Ijoko, Itori and Papalanto in Ogun State, up to the deep recesses of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, new cities have been emerging, with the capacity to becoming major hubs once the speed train takes off.

    Showpiece

    Mohammed gave the project a pass mark. He said the aim of the visit was to showcase to Nigerians the volume of work the government had put into the railway in the last three years. He told reporters: “We have come to have a foreknowledge of the infrastructure development going on in the railway sector under this administration and we started with the railway because of the capacity of the rail to transform the economy and we are satisfied with the level of work.

    “The idea is to let Nigerians know that this administration has done a lot in the area of infrastructure development.This is especially because people continue to complain that they do not know what we have done, so we want to show people what we have achieved.

    He concluded on a note that was cheery to Amaechi, when he said: “I think one thing we have achieved in the last two hours when we started our meeting with the contractor is that the December date for the Lagos-Ibadan modern gauge is not negotiable and I’m happy to say that both the consultants and the contractor and everyone involved have seen why it is important to meet this deadline.”

    What Mohammed did not say is that delivering the Lagos-Ibadan speed train on schedule will boost the administration’s profile and acceptability as it gets set for the  2019 general elections.

    That is why everything is tied to delivering the 156.65-kilometre, Lot II of the Lagos-Kano standard gauge rail line, which costs the government $1.5 billion by December. As at September 2016, Amaechi confirmed the administration had paid the counterpart funding for the project.

    By restating the demand for its completion, the Information Minister was harping what Amaechi has been drumming since 2016, to the contractor. The same contractor, CCECC, handled the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge which lasted 15 years, and they initially could not understand why the Buhari administration is in a hurry to get them to deliver Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge within 24 months.

    Busy corridor

    When the government took delivery of the Abuja-Kaduna railway in December 2015, a critic had carpeted the move as “merely linking the old Hausa/Fulani political capital with the nation’s. The source, a lecturer who refused to be named, said the new Lagos-Ibadan project offers more prospect once it takes off as it is the nation’s busiest motorised gateway for which a speed train could profitably cash into.

    If the government achieved its delivery target and start commercial operation a month after as Amaechi insisted, it would be the first time a government is delivering such a gargantuan project within its first term and the Minister of Transportation seemed poised to get it done.

    “We have detractors who have been asking what have we been doing and we want to use this to prove to our detractors wrong. We want them to see that you can actually begin a project as big as a standard gauge and end it within your tenure and that it doesn’t need to become inconclusive as the past governments almost made us believe,” Amaechi said.

    Going by the March assessment, track-laying ought to begin by April,  the reason the monitoring team resolved to shift the April meeting till monthend.

    Even at that, track-laying seems not to have started as planned. In fact, it didn’t seem to have started at Itori until early May, few days to the ministers’ visit. This explains why it was only 1.7 km of tracks that could be laid by the visit.

    Despite this however, the contractor put two track-laying machines each with a capacity for 1.2 km tracks daily on the site. The idea was to complete the Itori to Ibadan end, (which had much less encumbrances before attending to the Lagos end which had been dropped for its encumbrances.

    With the capacity to do 2.4 km per day, CCECC is sure to deliver 72 km in the next 30 days, covering the entire spectrum of the project within two months. But the Lagos side, which poses some challenges may require more nimble engineering solutions to prevent an undue spiral of the cost of the project.

    Such was the decision to shift the alignment of the rail at Abeokuta, Ogun State, when it was discovered that the original alignment could have led to the demolition of 1004 buildings and increase the cost by over N2.8 billion in compensation.

    Chief among the encumbrances faced along the Lagos corridor are the removal of some level crossings intersecting the project, the removal of gas pipelines at the Apapa end of the project, removal of water pipes and water mains, removal of structures, including army barracks and residential houses of NRC workers and at least three bridges as well as high tension power cables.

    That was why the contractor decided to address the Lagos end of the project last.

    A top Team Consults’ source, who asked not to be named, said: “The project could have achieved more strides by now, if the contractor had started from the hinterland which had but little challenges outside payment of compensations for those whose land or buildings are acquired for the project, but had first started working from Lagos, beginning from Ebute-Metta (where the then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo) flagged it off in March 2016.

    “They had to stop when it was discovered that little or no progress was being made and today, we are living witnesses to what can be done if the CCECC has less encumbrances to contend with and the December delivery date seemed less threatened by uncertainty,” he said.

    Relocating barracks, others

    Addressing the challenges on the Lagos axis, Amaechi said about 60 percent of the problems had been resolved.

    One of such is the military barracks at Yaba that needed to be pulled down for the project. Amaechi said the army has  agreed that the unit be demolished, that it would be mobilised before month end to facilitate the barracks temporary relocation.

    The project’s other challenges  are the bridges.The Minister of Transportation insisted that the bridges within Lagos were the least challenge to the project.

    “What is important is the track- laying and we have been assured that this can be achieved despite the advent of the rainy season. The bridges, or the removal of the pipes, poses no threat as the contractor have the competence to achieve this with minimal disruption to people’s lives,” he said.

    He said Lagos being a built up environment can pose such a challenge, adding that what is important is that the government is determined to achieve its aim of improving on the transportation infrastructure and would not stop in making this possible.

    He said the civil works could be suspended if the hindrance because of the season until the August break in September. In the interim, works, he said,would continue on track- laying as it would not be delayed or disturbed by the rain.

    Amaechi believes the contractor has no excuse delaying the project. They should assist the government to shore its image by giving Nigerians a new deal in rail transport from next January, just 30 days to the next general election.

  • Getting speed train off the ground

    The Lagos-Ibadan commercial speed train service is expected to come on stream in December, 19 months after it was launched by then Acting President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed gave the project a pass mark after an inspection. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE reports.

    For the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, last Tuesday’s tour of the speed train project by his Information and Culture counterpart, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was a welcome development.

    The tour convinced Mohammed that Amaechi can deliver  the Buhari administration’s flagship train project on schedule.

    Even Mohammed’s media team agreed that the contractor – China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) – will, in the next seven months, give Nigeria its first commercially-viable speed train route, 35 years after the botched Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri standard gauge rail line.

    In the last 14 months, new cities,    have been springing up from the tropical virgin forests of the West. At Abule-Ijoko, Itori and Papalanto in Ogun State, up to the deep recesses of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, new cities have been emerging, with the capacity to becoming major hubs once the speed train takes off.

    Showpiece

    Mohammed gave the project a pass mark. He said the aim of the visit was to showcase to Nigerians the volume of work the government had put into the railway in the last three years. He told reporters: “We have come to have a foreknowledge of the infrastructure development going on in the railway sector under this administration and we started with the railway because of the capacity of the rail to transform the economy and we are satisfied with the level of work.

    “The idea is to let Nigerians know that this administration has done a lot in the area of infrastructure development.This is especially because people continue to complain that they do not know what we have done, so we want to show people what we have achieved.

    He concluded on a note that was cheery to Amaechi, when he said: “I think one thing we have achieved in the last two hours when we started our meeting with the contractor is that the December date for the Lagos-Ibadan modern gauge is not negotiable and I’m happy to say that both the consultants and the contractor and everyone involved have seen why it is important to meet this deadline.”

    What Mohammed did not say is that delivering the Lagos-Ibadan speed train on schedule will boost the administration’s profile and acceptability as it gets set for the  2019 general elections.

    That is why everything is tied to delivering the 156.65-kilometre, Lot II of the Lagos-Kano standard gauge rail line, which costs the government $1.5 billion by December. As at September 2016, Amaechi confirmed the administration had paid the counterpart funding for the project.

    By restating the demand for its completion, the Information Minister was harping what Amaechi has been drumming since 2016, to the contractor. The same contractor, CCECC, handled the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge which lasted 15 years, and they initially could not understand why the Buhari administration is in a hurry to get them to deliver Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge within 24 months.

    Busy corridor

    When the government took delivery of the Abuja-Kaduna railway in December 2015, a critic had carpeted the move as “merely linking the old Hausa/Fulani political capital with the nation’s. The source, a lecturer who refused to be named, said the new Lagos-Ibadan project offers more prospect once it takes off as it is the nation’s busiest motorised gateway for which a speed train could profitably cash into.

    If the government achieved its delivery target and start commercial operation a month after as Amaechi insisted, it would be the first time a government is delivering such a gargantuan project within its first term and the Minister of Transportation seemed poised to get it done.

    “We have detractors who have been asking what have we been doing and we want to use this to prove to our detractors wrong. We want them to see that you can actually begin a project as big as a standard gauge and end it within your tenure and that it doesn’t need to become inconclusive as the past governments almost made us believe,” Amaechi said.

    Going by the March assessment, track-laying ought to begin by April,  the reason the monitoring team resolved to shift the April meeting till monthend.

    Even at that, track-laying seems not to have started as planned. In fact, it didn’t seem to have started at Itori until early May, few days to the ministers’ visit. This explains why it was only 1.7 km of tracks that could be laid by the visit.

    Despite this however, the contractor put two track-laying machines each with a capacity for 1.2 km tracks daily on the site. The idea was to complete the Itori to Ibadan end, (which had much less encumbrances before attending to the Lagos end which had been dropped for its encumbrances.

    With the capacity to do 2.4 km per day, CCECC is sure to deliver 72 km in the next 30 days, covering the entire spectrum of the project within two months. But the Lagos side, which poses some challenges may require more nimble engineering solutions to prevent an undue spiral of the cost of the project.

    Such was the decision to shift the alignment of the rail at Abeokuta, Ogun State, when it was discovered that the original alignment could have led to the demolition of 1004 buildings and increase the cost by over N2.8 billion in compensation.

    Chief among the encumbrances faced along the Lagos corridor are the removal of some level crossings intersecting the project, the removal of gas pipelines at the Apapa end of the project, removal of water pipes and water mains, removal of structures, including army barracks and residential houses of NRC workers and at least three bridges as well as high tension power cables.

    That was why the contractor decided to address the Lagos end of the project last.

    A top Team Consults’ source, who asked not to be named, said: “The project could have achieved more strides by now, if the contractor had started from the hinterland which had but little challenges outside payment of compensations for those whose land or buildings are acquired for the project, but had first started working from Lagos, beginning from Ebute-Metta (where the then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo) flagged it off in March 2016.

    “They had to stop when it was discovered that little or no progress was being made and today, we are living witnesses to what can be done if the CCECC has less encumbrances to contend with and the December delivery date seemed less threatened by uncertainty,” he said.

    Relocating barracks, others

    Addressing the challenges on the Lagos axis, Amaechi said about 60 percent of the problems had been resolved.

    One of such is the military barracks at Yaba that needed to be pulled down for the project. Amaechi said the army has  agreed that the unit be demolished, that it would be mobilised before month end to facilitate the barracks temporary relocation.

    The project’s other challenges  are the bridges.The Minister of Transportation insisted that the bridges within Lagos were the least challenge to the project.

    “What is important is the track- laying and we have been assured that this can be achieved despite the advent of the rainy season. The bridges, or the removal of the pipes, poses no threat as the contractor have the competence to achieve this with minimal disruption to people’s lives,” he said.

    He said Lagos being a built up environment can pose such a challenge, adding that what is important is that the government is determined to achieve its aim of improving on the transportation infrastructure and would not stop in making this possible.

    He said the civil works could be suspended if the hindrance because of the season until the August break in September. In the interim, works, he said,would continue on track- laying as it would not be delayed or disturbed by the rain.

    Amaechi believes the contractor has no excuse delaying the project. They should assist the government to shore its image by giving Nigerians a new deal in rail transport from next January, just 30 days to the next general election.

     

  • NTC: Regulator to change sector’s face

    The Senate has passed the National Transport Commission (NTC) Bill. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE examines the bill’s journey of the bill, which is expected to change the face of transportation.

    Ten years after the idea of the National Transport Commission (NTC) bill was mooted, the Senate has passed it into law. Its passage may pave the way for organic changes to the regulatory framework of a sector critical to the nation’s economic development.

    Although it was first sponsored in 2008, the bill, whose current version was sponsored by Senator Andy Uba and read for the second time on October 7, 2015, made it through after a clause-by-clause consideration.

    Though the bill is still awaiting President Muhammadu Buhari’s accent, there is no doubt of its being signed, as it is meant to revolutionise a sector, which needs new operational paradigm.

    Senate Committee Chairman on Land Transportation, Senator Gbenga Ashafa said the bill would, no doubt, “revolutionise and bring the needed sanity and fresh air to the sector”.

    According to him, the Commission will not only regulate transport inter-modality, it will also lift the sector’s contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which for a decade has stagnated at less than four per cent yearly.

    He said: “With this bill, we would successfully create a multi-modal transport sector economy and a safety oversight regulator for the entire sector. This is very good for business as it brings standard and structure to the transport sector while also increasing the revenue of government.”

    Ashafa’s enthusiasm is not misplaced, having worked assiduously with other members of the committee and stake holders to berth the best possible version of the bill into law.

    “The National Transport Commission when signed into law is capable of setting the transport sector on the path of positive development,” he said, adding: “the Joint Senate Committee on Land Transport, Marine Transport and Aviation Transport worked with the understanding that this is one of the priority economic bills of the eighth Senate and therefore, ensured that all inputs from stakeholders were considered and the best possible version of the bill was presented to the Senate.”

    The question on the lips of stakeholders, especially transportation experts is why it took Nigeria 58 years to realise the desirability of the commission. They opined that the nation had for so long been shortchanged by successive administration that had failed to establish the commission and help sanitise a sector that is extremely critical to the nation’s economic development.

    Last year, Minister of Power, Works and Housing Mr Babatunde Fashola questioned the rationale behind the delay. “The question was not whether the commission is desirable, but why it has taken so long in coming,”he said.

    Across the three modes land -(motorised and rail), water and air, the absence of a commission to serve as the regulator and policy formulator had turned transportation into an all comers’ game, with the Federal and state government abandoning the space for unorganised private operators to dominate and set the rule.

    Under the new bill, the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) has been proposed to be upgraded in status to the NTC, to extend its regulatory roles to all other sectors of transportation system.

    This will undoubtedly synch with the position of the Minister of Transportation Mr Rotimi Amaechi, who at the public sitting three years ago, canvassed such position for the NSC.

    According to Amaechi, the Ministry had resolved that the bill so recognise the NSC to put paid to dupplicating responsibilities, which may arise if another  regulatory agency is created.

    Though the Ministry’s position had initially been opposed by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), which sought the creation of another body to avoid the blurring of  technical/operational responsibilities once the NSC is upgraded and its roles merged or enlarged, it seemed the ministry had had its way, but should it?

    NSC’s function

    Besides being established to promote the interest of shippers, and the establishment of shippers associations across the country, the Shippers Council law authorises in Section 3 that it should advise the government of the federation, through the Minister on matters relating to “the structure of freight rate, availability and adequacy of shipping space, frequency of sailings, terms of shipment, class and quality of vessels, port charges and facilities and other related matters, negotiate and enter into agreements with Conference Lines and non-Conference Lines, ship-owners, the Nigerian Ports Authority and any other bodies on matters affecting the interests of shippers; consider the problems faced by shippers with regards to coastal transport, inland waterways transport and matters relating generally to the transportation of goods by water and advise government on possible solutions and to provide a forum for the protection of the interest of shippers on matters affecting the shipment of imports and exports to and from Nigeria”, among others.

    Shedding more light, Founder Safety Without Borders (SWB) Patrick Adenusi said being a body set up to protect the interest of Nigeria, especially at a time when the nation has no national carrier, the NSC is not in the best position to advance the cause of transportation sector and become a regulator of the industry.

    “I don’t think merging NSC or adapting it to the status of the NTC is best for the industry,” he said. Questioning the rationale for the establishment of any other agency, Adenusi said in an era of recession when government expenses is increasing, establishing another agency would only serve to bloat government’s expenditure.

    “What we would end up having is to have some Nigerians that would not be productive but collect salaries and increasing government’s burden.”

    Rather than setting up another agency, Adenusi canvassed that the Ministry should play its role as the policy formulator and implementor.

    There’s nothing the NTC wanted to do that the Ministry couldn’t achieve. “If the Federal Government gets away with the NTC, what that means is that similar agency must be created by the states. In a situation where many states are owing upwards of a year salary, how many can sustain another agency?”

    Bureaucracy

    Another transportation expert, Dr Tajudeen Bawa’ Allah, said the government must be careful and “not allow bureaucracy to kill its good intention for the industry”.

    Bawa’Allah, who was the first Dean, School of Transportation Studies, Lagos State University (LASU), said, while the dichotomy being sought by the government, which seeks to separate the executing body, which is the policy formulating body is welcome, efforts must be made to ensure that bureaucracy does not kill the dream.

    The don, who faulted the merging or upgrading of the NSC to NTC, said the mandate or functions of the former, is at variance with the proposed duties and functions of a regulator which is the latter.

    Rather than “engaging in a cut and paste, which adapting the NSC would amount to, one would advise that the government revisit the report of the National Transportation Coordinating Committee (NTCC), headed by Prof Adeniyi, and draw from it,” Bawa’Allah said, adding, “We are not short of ideas, we are just short of putting all these ideas to productive use. If we don’t, the same bureaucracy that killed the National Sports Commission would kill the National Transportation Commission”.

    Bawa’Allah, who served on the board of the NTCC, said rather than rushing into creating the Commission, the government needs to come up with a policy framework to guide the agency in its operation. “There is nothing on ground for the NTC to work on. Let’s start by drawing up a national policy on transportation. The transportation industry has no policy and that is the foundation. I would urge the government to revisit the NTCC report and several of such reports since 1960.”

    Another expert, who preferred not to be mentioned, said transportation policy is the foundation upon which any implementation on the sector would rest.

    “It is the policy that would draw up the functions of the Federal Ministry of Transportation and those of the 36 states and Abuja, as well as that of other inter-ministerial boards, departments or agencies within the entire gamut of the transportation industry as well as other contiguous ministry like the Ministry of Works among others.”

    Now that the bill has been passed, Bawa’Allah, however, said NTC should be allowed to live. He said the NTC would pave the way for the deregulation of the transportation sector. “The bill when passed would be a plus to the government,” he said.

    ‘Game changer’

    Contrary to scepticism that NTC could just be a drain pipe, a train logistics expert Edeme Kelikume said a transport commission may eventually emerge as a game changer and major “value-adding agency of the government. “If the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) could become a major net contributor to the GDP, revolutionising the Global Satellite Communication (GSM) licences and democratising telephone services by making communication accessible to all Nigerians, one could see the NTC achieving same for the transportation sector,” he added.

    Kelikume is already looking forward to the time when the NTC would unlock the sector, deregulate its operations and draw fresh funds into government’s coffers. That time, he says, may just be months away.

     

  • When will light rail take off?

    The Lagos Blue Line is yet to be completed five years after it should have taken off, creating the impression that the Lagos Urban Rail Transport (LURT) is no longer strategic to the state’s transport system, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE.

    Is the Lagos Blue Rail Line (the flagship of the state’s innovative intervention in the rail sub-sector) not turning into a white elephant?

    To the government, that thought is inconceivable, but stakeholders do not share its enthusiasm.

    The reason, according to them, is that five years after the project’s timeline expired, it is still on the to-do-list of the government.

    “It appears nothing was done on the Blue Light Rail between 2016 and 2017, as the government’s attention shifted  to roads with so many improvements recorded on road infrastructure and attempts at re-fleeting commercial buses,” an industry operator Mr. Patrick Adenusi said on Friday.

    Adenusi’s submission  is coming on the heels of the revelation by the government that the project was still ongoing.

    Speaking on the activities of his ministry as part of the government’s third year anniversary, the Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Ladi Lawanson, on Tuesday, gave a completion rate figure that was almost at par with what one of his predecessors, Dr Dayo Mobereola gave two years ago.

    “We have achieved 95 percent completion level between the Mile 2 and National Theatre segment of the Blue Line project and focus has, therefore, shifted to the National Theatre-Marina segment, which has attained 65 percent completion level,” Lawanson  said.

    The difference between Mobereola and Lawanson is the National Theatre-Marina segment, which has moved from 40 per cent to 65 percent.

    Ongoing work, according to Lawanson, includes boring of piles, construction of pile caps, piers and pier caps, pre-inspection of pier positions to determine underground utilities as well as boring of piles across the lagoon among others.

    According to him, bailey beam form works have been completed at Marina, while fabrication of steel cages and casings, paintings of reinforcement with antirust, seawall strengthening were on course.

    Adenusi said Lawanson’s refusal to put a timeline on the delivery of the project was worrisome. He said the 95 percent and 65 percent completion rate could be left hanging till Ambode’s second term begins next year.

    He, like other industry watchers, is worried that the rail line was no longer on the government’s priority list.

    Tortuous journey

    The idea of developing a rapid transit befitting rail system in Lagos State began in 1983 with the Lagos Metroline network conceived by the Alhaji Lateef Jakande in the Second Republic. The project was scrapped in 1985 by the then Head of State Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari at a loss of over $78 million to the Lagos taxpayers.

    The idea of developing a light rail network was revived by former Lagos State governor and National Leader of the All Progressives (APC) National Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who despite being in the opposition to the government at the centre, stuck to the dream of developing a light rail system, with the turning of the sod in December 2003. The project’s initial budget was $135 million.

    The rail project is a major component of Lagos Urban Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) coordinated by the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA).

    LAMATA, on its website page lamata-ng.com/rail, which initially concentrated on developing a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) running from Mile 12 to Lagos Island in 2007, began the rail project by developing the Lagos Urban Rail Network (LURN), which developed seven colour-coded routes: The Blue line, (Okokomaiko to Marina), Orange Line (Redeemed to Marina), Brown Line (Mile 12 to Marina). Others are; Purple Line (Redeemed to Ojo), Green Line (Marina to Lekki Airport), and Yellow Line (Ota to Iddo).

    The seven lines are to link the major population and activity centres in the state, as well as taking advantage, where possible, of the transport corridors. The network is integrated with planned and existing water transport and BRT routes. Work started in August 2009 for construction of the Blue Line rail infrastructure, awarded to China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) as a design and build contract.

    CCECC prepared the detailed plan, design and construction works for the rail infrastructure.These works includes stations, roadbed, bridges, permanent way (P-way) tracks works, pedestrian ways and other associated fixed infrastructure.

    All survey work, a proportion of the detailed design work and mobilisation of contractor was completed between August 2009 and August 2010. While the fixed infrastructure is to be implemented in phases and actual construction started with a ground-breaking ceremony by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola on July 26, 2010.The amended cost has been jerked to $1.25 billion.

    Construction is ongoing for the first phase. The infrastructure were expected to be completed within the first quarter of 2014, while operation  was billed to be after the conclusion of negotiation with the concessionaire, expected to provide the rolling stock, operate and manage the rail line.

    Proposed trains

    The trains proposed for the Blue Line Rail Project are Electric Multiple Units (EMUs), and LAMATA, has procured one such machine which is rotting away at the site. EMUs are emissions free, more efficient and easier to maintain than Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU). It is environmental-friendly, and unlike conventional diesel locomotive, does not pollute the environment.

    Initially, the Blue Line will carry 400,000 passengers daily with capacity increased to 700,000 passengers daily, when the rail route becomes fully operational.

    To incorporate the use of EMUs, a depot, including power generating plant, has been proposed for construction at the final western most station, Okokomaiko. The depot will serve as train maintenance and repair yard, sidings, final train destination, office complex and power station.

    The selected concessionaire will be responsible for providing rolling stock, operations and maintenance as well as offer other auxiliary services, such as station operations, staffing, maintenance, ticketing, cleaning, information, services kiosk, centres and other services needed to provide excellent train services for passengers for a 25-year period.

    The Blue Line, when fully operational, will be incorporated into the integrated ticketing and fare systems, making travel between various modes a seamless operation. This  will also be applied to the provision of information about other transport modes and time tables between  various modes (BRT, LRT, Ferry, etc), at rail stations to enable precision journey planning.

    Follow the money

    With an average of 400,000 passengers daily, the EMU light rail ought to have been making about N80 million daily for the government, if each passenger pays N200 per trip. What this means is that the government has been losing N2.4 billion monthly, and about N28.8 billion yearly in the last five years. The amount would, undoubtedly, be more staggering by now as the train would be hitting 700,000 passengers’ traffic daily. So, why would the government ignore the money by delaying the project?

    Unforseen challenges

    The track’s major headache was the alignment, a top-profile LAMATA source disclosed. Its original alignment, according to the source, which preferred anonymity had fallen on the pipeline belonging to Gas Link. “A new engineering design had to be done to re-route the track and this affected the delivery time,” the source added.

    The other had been the construction of an independent power plant (IPP) to service its operations.

    The 27.5-kilometre Blue Line will run from Okokomaiko to Marina with 13 stations and an end-to-end travel time of between 35-40 minutes.

    It is being built as a high capacity, electrically-powered rail mass transit system.

    The Nation learnt that the development of an Independent Power Plant (IPP) to run the EMU locomotives becomes imperative.

    “The coaches would operate for 16 hours daily, carrying about 25,000 passengers per hour, per direction, depending on the take-off point.

    “They will cover in 40 minutes the distance which takes the minibuses buses two hours between one hour, 45 minutes. So, someone living in FESTAC Estate, but working on the Island, would no longer have to wake up by 4am and leave home by 5am to resume at 8am in his office. Such a person can actually wake up by 6am, leave his house 7am and still be sure of not getting late to work.”

    Most of the rail tracks will be on the surface, while some, especially around Orile-Marina end, are on elevated platforms, no thanks to the swampy terrain.

    “We are looking at next year for the completion of the Blue Line Marina-Mile 2 Light Rail project. Before then, all infrastructure would have been provided. These include: stations, signals and power generation, among other furniture.

    “The entire Blue Line will operate over a secure and exclusive right-of-way, with no level crossings and no uncontrolled access by pedestrians or vehicles.”

    The continued delay of the Blue Line is already negatively impacting on the Red Line, being packaged by the Infrastructure Bank, programmed to share the existing 30 metre wide Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) right-of-way, spanning 13 kilometres from Marina to Agbado which has been unable to take off.

    When completed, the Red Line is meant to also link the International and Domestic Terminals of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja to Marina, the nation’s commercial district.

    In 2015, the Federal Government  approved the state’s use of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) corridor for the Red Line, billed to cost $2.4 billion.

    There were reports that the government had acquired four single EMU car train coaches, expected to run on the Lagos Urban Rail Network (LURN).

    In 2014, the government, under the administration former Governor Babatunde Fashola, approved $14.6 million to Messrs CCECC/China North Locomotive and Rolling Stock Industry Corporation (CNRSIC) for the acquisition of the four EMU trains from the Chinese Government.

    Confirming the coaches’ acquisition, the source said: “The government has procured a single EMU four car train operations.”

    Conclusion

    LAMATA’s External Relations Specialist Kola Ojelabi said the Light Rail project – the Blue Line – was on course.

    His words: “The project is not slow. Steady construction is ongoing. The few challenges have been surmounted with the courage and dedication of the governor to make commuting stress-free in the state.

    “By the time the Blue Line is completed and operational, Lagosians will reap the benefits. It is a worth-while investment that requires patience, Ojelabi said.

    The question is whether Lagosians could still afford to share such “unfounded” optimism.

  • Solar-powered traffic lights flood Abuja

    Despite its wide roads, Abuja’s headache has always been its ‘maddening’ traffic. Whether in the city centre or satellite towns, gridlock is a common sight. But the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has unveiled some traffic signal innovations that may sanitise traffic in the city, writes GBENGA OMOKHUNU.

    Abuja was created as the nation’s capital 40 years ago on February 4, 1976. On December 12, 1991, former military president Gen. Ibrahim Babangida  moved the seat of government from Lagos to Abuja.

    Abuja is divided into two parts. The territory comprises 8,000 square kilometres: 250 square kilometres of this is the Federal Capital City (FCT), which includes Garki, Maitama and Asokoro.

    The remaining portion is made up of satellite towns where about 70 per cent of the residents live.

    Before now, traffic had been a bit easy round the city centre, but the FCT began to witness greater influx of settlers, which posed some challenges to motorists and commuters.

    Though as a planned capital, Abuja lacked nothing in planning and the development of a sustainable transportation system. Traffic signalisation, one of the innovations to make commuting from one part of the city to the other easy, began to witness some challenges as most of the traffic lights became dysfunctional, a situation that was worsened by epileptic power supply.

    Two worlds

    Although the highbrow areas of the city are a bit better, traffic lights are a rarity in most satellite towns and where they existed, they were mere decorations on the highway. The poles in most places were either vandalised by hoodlums or had been uprooted by careless motorists, who frequently ran into them.

    Dysfunctional traffic lights impede free flow of traffic in the city, and, in many cases, result in accidents and loss of lives. Traffic signals are electrically operated devices that alternately direct traffic to stop and or proceed.

    There are 168 traffic light intersections in the FCT, but about two-third of them are derelict as criminals vandalise their key components and dispose them off in the market.

    One of such areas where the traffic lamps have become a luxury is the Ahmadu Bello Way. About 90 per cent of the traffic lamps installed on major junctions on this road are inactive.

    The 4.6-kilometre-long road is strategic as it runs from Apo in the southwest area of Abuja through the Federal Secretariat, down to Wuse 2.

    Roads like Herbert Macaulay, Yakubu Gowon Crescent, Tafawa Balewa, some sections of Obafemi Awolowo Road to the Northwest of the FCT, experience similar situations. Several inner roads that serve as arteries to the major roads do not fare better.

    Lease of life

    Determined to change the narratives and make Abuja roads friendly again, the FCTA saw the need to fix the dysfunctional traffic lights in the nation’s capital.

    The FCT Minister, Muhammadu Bello’s led administration has procured several solar powered traffic lights to serve the capital city.

    He disclosed that the FCTA procured traffic lights powered by solar panels to serve all intersections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    After a tour of some of the installed solar panels traffic lights, the Secretary, FCTA Transport Secretariat, Comrade Kayode Opeifa, in an interview, explained that the administration had opted for solar panel for traffic lights because it is more durable, cheaper, cleaner and more environmentally friendly.

    Some of the places, which now have solar traffic lights are, Finance junction, National Assembly junction, and almost all the zones in the FCT.

    Opeifa said: “We have opted for solar-panelled traffic lights for our major junctions, because we believe that, even though it is  more expensive, is easier and cleaner. It is also durable and its the way to go.”

    The transportation Secretary further disclosed that about 12 junctions in the city centre have so far been connected with the solar-panel traffic lights, while efforts are being made to connect other junctions.

    He also disclosed that cases of vandalisation of traffic lights facilities in the city centre have reduced because of the initiative taken by the secretariat to curb vandals menace.

    According to the secretary, the secretariat has made it more difficult for vandals to remove traffic light facilities, adding that in the last six months, no case of traffic light vandalism has been recorded. He said the traffic light would greatly improve traffic distribution and improve travel time by motorists in the FCT.

    Advantages

    According to its page on signal, operations and maintenance, www.cityofirvine.org, traffic signals offer maximum control at intersections. “They (the signals) relay messages of both what to do and what not to do. The primary function of any traffic signal is to assign right-of-way to conflicting movements of traffic at an intersection. This is done by permitting conflicting streams of traffic to share the same intersection by means of time separation. By alternately assigning right of way to various traffic movements, signals provide for the orderly movement of conflicting flows. They may interrupt extremely heavy flows to permit the crossing of minor movements that could not otherwise move safely through an intersection,” the website said.

    When properly timed, a traffic signal increases the traffic handling capacity of any intersection, and when installed under conditions that justify its use, a signal is a valuable device for improving the safety and efficiency of both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. In particular, signals may reduce certain types of accidents, most notably right-angle (broadside) collisions.

    While many people realise that traffic signals can reduce the number of right-angle collisions at an intersection, a few realised that signals can also cause a significant increase in rear-end collisions. Normally, traffic engineers are willing to accept an increase in rear-end collisions for a decrease in the more severe right-angle accidents.

    However, when there is no right-angle accident problem at an intersection, and a signal is not needed for traffic control, the installation of traffic signals can actually cause deterioration in the overall safety at an intersection. Traffic signals are not a “cure-all” for traffic problems. The primary goal of the traffic engineer is to attain the safest and most efficient overall traffic flow possible. In addition to an increase in rear-end accident frequency, unjustified traffic signals can also cause excessive delay, disobedience of signals, and diversion of traffic to residential streets.

    Robbery on the red

    But while the FCTA might be mindful of improving the traffic bottleneck in the Federal Capital metropolis, residents are saying the move might pose more dangers to their safety. Several residents have had close shaves with robbers, who have attacked them at intervals of traffic sign stoppage.

    In a report by Pulse.ng three years ago, robbers in Abuja  seemed to be taking advantage of traffic light to wreak havoc on their victims. According to the report, traffic robbery has risen sharply with increased traffic signal lights on many junctions in the city.

    “When next you are at a traffic light intersection, you might want to be careful,” a motorist Aliyu Hajara, who was robbed as he waited for the green light to turn on at a junction in Maitama said.

    Another victim had all her property, money and mobile phones stolen at another junction within the city in similar circumstances. Their experiences informed calls by residents for adequate security network to be put in place by the FCTA to ensure residents’ safety of lives and property, just as it attempted to boldly address the transportation challenge making life hellish for the people.

    Opeifa, responding to the security breaches, assured that the FCTA is aware of the several cases of residents, being attacked by armed robbers in the Abuja metropolis, adding that this, however, will not stop the FCTA to continue to grapple with how to resolve the transportation challenges of the FCT.

    A comprehensive security overhaul, he said, is in the offing at the FCT, which will further strengthen security in the FCT. According to him, “the traffic situation in the FCT has become so predictably heavy that a sustainable solution such as the introduction of more traffic signal lights seemed the only away.