The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has been fervent in persuading CCECC, the contractors, to speed up work and deliver the project by December 2018, even though the construction site has been confronted with many challenges, from two bridges in Lagos metropolis that are sited on the right of way of the rail route (Jibowu and Costain bridge), gas pipelines at Papalanto in Ogun State, and over 1,400 houses that were marked for demolition to give way to rail construction.
In November 2017 when Amaechi met with the steering committee on railway and the CCECC, the major issue was the bridges in Lagos city that were said to be sitting on the rail route. “The two bridges that we may likely demolish are Jibowu and Costain, to give way to the rail lines but we are rebuilding them immediately; we are not going to abandon them,” Amaechi assured.
The minister noted that the rail project will encounter many problems. “The challenges will be in cities like Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan because we have to pay compensation. Look at the water pipes, gas pipes, houses and cables.”
“In Lagos especially, we will have to deal with bridges, electric cables and water pipes and other assets,” Amaechi revealed.
Although, Amaechi found a way out of most of the challenges that initially confronted the project like the bridges, which will no longer be demolished but the rail line will now be constructed to pass under the bridges. The contractors have also acknowledge of that it is possible to construct rail line at Papalanto without necessarily relocating the gass pipelines, so instead of relocating the pipes, CCECC will now seal the pipes while rail line is under construction.
New challenges are cropping up and threatening to frustrate the Federal Government much desired deadline. Laying of tracks commenced in April 2018, which indicated that much progress has been witnessed in the construction of Lagos-Ibadan rail line, then two months later rainfall became another major challenge, completely slowing down the pace of work.
At the Steering Committee meeting in April, the minister wished that the rain, like last year’s, might start in May. But nature again proved its unpredictability as it came earlier than expected, adversely affecting the construction work on the rail line. While at the just-concluded inspection exercise of the project few days ago, the minister was yet confronted with another challenge, the bridges for the rail line. A total of over 60 bridges are to be constructed from Lagos to Ibadan and many of these bridges are yet to be constructed or completed.
Amaechi, who was obviously not happy when he discovered that some of the long bridges are still uncompleted, demanded explanations, which further confirmed his fears. The project coordinator, Leo Yin, told the minister that the bridges were being constructed in a sequence order.
Yin assured the minister that by the time the rainy season is over, the bridges must have been completed while earth work will commence preparatory for laying of the tracks.
Not happy with the situation, Amaechi ordered the contractors to work day and night in order to meet the December target. He noted that the new directive became imperative due to the urgency and need of the project to the present government.
He instructed the company to write to the leadership of the Labour Union in Nigeria and inform them of the reasons why they will be engaging workers day and night, as well as on Sundays, in order to avoid having problem with the union.
Amaechi said that the contractors have assured that they would speed up work after rainy season. “We are progressing but we felt that they have slowed down, and their argument is that there is no way they could have done earth work during the rainy season. Their fear, however, is that in the next one or two weeks, the rain will come again but immediately after, the speed will increase to make up for the past weeks that they slowed down the work.
“We told them, if they go by the original agreement then, everything will take three years but we told them that it has to be done in one year. I told them that they have to work day and night, including Sundays. I am a Christian; so I shouldn’t have given that advice but I have to do so because of the urgency of the work and the importance we attach to the project,” the minister stated.
He added that, “CCECC have been able to complete 12 kilometres of tracks laying. Last time we were here, they did three kilometres but I am not satisfied with it. Their argument is that track laying is not the problem, they can lay as many tracks as possible in a day. They said that the problem is earth work and we should pray that the rain should stop so that they can complete earth work. They have done 90 per cent of earth work from Iju to Abeokuta and that is remaining 10 per cent.
“If you are very observant, you will see that there are no rail stations and they may complete the tracks without the stations, that doesn’t mean we should commission without the station. Yes, we can run the train but where would the passengers engage with the train. There must be a station,” he said, adding that “we have discussed it and they (CCECC) will commence. I hope that they complete it before December,” he concluded.
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