kick-started a nationwide tour of Federal Government’s infrastructural
projects nationwide with an inspection of the ongoing construction of
the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail line.
Alhaji Mohammed, along with the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi
Amaechi, Tuesday led a team of over 30 journalists on a tour of the
fabrication plant of the project in Papalanto, Ogun State.
The Ministers and their entourage had earlier travelled by train from
Ebute Metta in Lagos to Papalanto, where they inspected the laying of
the rail tracks, the rail-track slippers construction site and other
accessories of the project.
After the tour, the Ministers held a meeting with the contractors of
the project, the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation
(CCECC), officials of the Federal Ministry of Transportation and other
officials to review the progress of work on the project.
Alhaji Mohammed later told the media that the government embarked on
the inspection of the projects in the full glare of the media in order
to showcase its achievements to the people.
“The idea of this visit actually is to showcase to Nigerians the
amount of work this administration has been able to do in the last
three years, starting with railways. The idea is to let Nigerians know
that this government has done a lot in the area of infrastructural
projects,” he said.
The Minister of Information and Culture, who expressed his
appreciation at the progress of work on the project, said the
construction of the standard gauge rail-line from Lagos to Kano is one
of the flagship projects of this administration, which will transform
the economy.
He appealed to the contractors to ensure that the December 2018
deadline for the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail
line is met.
Alhaji Mohammed said in addition to the construction of the standard
gauge rail line, the Federal Government will also upgrade the
3,500-kilometre narrow gauge railway lines across the country.
In his remarks, the Minister of Transportation said that for the first
time in the history of Nigeria, the present administration will
deliver a speed train in the country.
“What are you expecting to see? A speed train that will do a minimum
of 150 kilometres per hour that will take you to Ibadan in an hour
from Lagos and when we finish, we will introduce an express train that
takes off from either Apapa or Ebute Metta straight to Ibadan or
straight to Abeokuta…and we will introduce the one that stops at
virtually all stations,” he said.
Mr. Amaechi said that because of the capital-intensive nature of
railway construction, the President has given the approval to source
for funds to construct rail lines across the country.
“Usually, the Federal Government of any country invests in railway.
The likely change in terms of strategy is that we may have to borrow
the money because the money is not just there. We are saying that even
the three rail lines that we have to construct now: The Lagos-Kano;
Lagos-Calabar and Port Harcourt-Maiduguri will cost us not less than
$46 billion and we don’t have it straight in our pocket, we have to
source the funds,” he said.
Mr. Amaechi, who said the construction of the rail lines will give a
boost to the Nigerian economy, disclosed that 7,000 people have been
gainfully employed in the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan standard
gauge line.
The contractors are laying 1.2 kilometres of rail-track per day on the
156-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge line, which is a section of
the Lagos-Kano standard gauge line.