Slates January 1st, 2021 for commissioning of Lagos-Ibadan rail line
By Dirisu Yakubu – Lagos
Minister of Transportation, Hon Rotimi Amaechi, on Saturday, reiterated the need to engage residents of communities along the Lagos-Ibadan rail corridor to create enough under and overpasses as a means of preventing accidents following the level of progress of work on the route.
Amaechi stated this at Ibadan while on an inspection tour of the route to access the level of work done. He disclosed that communities along the rail corridor had written him many times, complaining of inadequacy of under and overpasses.
He added that the communities had also complained of erosion owing to work done on the standard gauge which left the grounds very high.
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“These communities will write, when they write, I will vet it to the Permanent Secretary, the Permanent Secretary will vet to the Director (rail) and I wouldn’t hear about it again.
“We are being unfair to them because they gave us all the cooperation we wanted. These communities have been nice to us. Why do we want to visit them with what was not there before we came?”, he asked.
Amaechi said, “what I want is for the engineers to take a study, village by village of what impact our rail line must have caused to these communities vis-a vis our Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Nigerian Railway Corporate board, Engr. Ibrahim Alhassan Musa said the corporation was working with the Lagos, Oyo, and Ogun state governments to create enough under and overpasses.
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Sunday Vanguard findings revealed that there are over 55 overhead bridges, 6 underpasses and over 100 covets on the 156 km standard gauge line.
Amaechi also reminded the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCECC that ongoing works must be completed on time, preparatory for commissioning on January 1st, 2020.
“I will return again by the end of this month because we want to commission this route in January next year,” he told CCECC project manager (stations), Mr.Li Depeng.
Amaechi was accompanied on the inspection tour by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Engr. Fidet Okhiria and top officials of the Federal Ministry of Transportation.
Vanguard
