Rail project: CCECC receives two additional standard gauge DMUs

The contractor handling the $1.6bn standard gauge rail project, the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), has revealed that 200 metres excavation works have been done so far inside the Lagos port. This is even as the contractor stated that it has taken delivery of two Diesel Multiple Units (DMU) for the standard gauge rail project.

Speaking at the weekend during a media tour of the project, the Lagos-Ibadan Rail Project Manager, Engineer Xia Lijun, stated that hopefully, in another weeks times, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the port concessionaires should have allocated a working area for rail works inside the port.

According to Xia Lijun, “The port, for now, is the pressure that we have. We are talking to the people inside the ports together with our employer, that is the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT).

“The NPA is under the Federal Ministry of Transportation, same with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), so with this relationship, we believe the FMOT can talk to the NPA, who in turn should help us talk to the port concessionaires.

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“At our last meeting with all concerned stakeholders, we agreed that in three weeks, we should have been given a working area inside the port. The three weeks will lapse by the end of this week. So, hopefully after this week, we should have a working area where we can start proper work inside the port.”

On the percentage of work achieved so far inside the Apapa port, Xia Lijun stated that excavation works have already started inside the port. In his words, “We have already started minimal work inside the port. We have done excavation works of about 200 meters and has already laid the tracks.”

On arrival of equipment and coaches, Xia Lijun added that the company has already taken delivery of two standard gauge Diesel Multiple Units (DMU).

“The good news, for now, is that two DMUs for the standard gauge rail has arrived. By the grace of God, if we are lucky, we will use those two new DMUs in our next ministerial inspection. Their deployment will be subject to the Minister’s directive, whether we use both here, on the Lagos-Ibadan rail or we deploy one for the Abuja-Kaduna rail services.”

In his own presentation, the Spokesman for CCECC Nigeria, Akinwoye Abdularauf, stated that the media parley was organised to further showcase new developments on the Lagos-Ibadan rail project.

“We want to appreciate the media men and women who have tirelessly helped to disseminate information to the public as regards the Federal Government railway modernisation efforts in Nigeria.

“We also embarked on this tour to showcase the latest development on the project, as you can see, the arrival of the two new DMUs for the standard gauge rail. We hope to sustain this in the nearest future,” the CCECC Nigeria Spokesman stated.