FG reveals date for commencement of Railway transportation

The Federal Government has given directive for the commencement of train services on Lagos-Ibadan standard rail guage.

The Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, gave the directive to the MD of Nigeria Railway Corporation(NRC), Fidet Okhiria, at the joint inspection of the rail project with the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, at the Abeokuta axis of the project on Saturday.

“I have directed for them to start skeletal services . We may not need the stations to begin. The MD of railway will answer when this can start because it has to do with operations,”

Responding, NRC MD, said: “We will start by middle of september from Yaba to Ibadan, while the other construction will continue and hopefully by January, it will be full blown.

“We already have 24 coaches and a set of DMU made up of 8coaches and with that we intend to have 16 round trips a day,”

Speaking on the commencement of Ibadan-Kano standard gauge project, Amaechi noted that what is remaining is the approval of the loans.

“We are ready for the commencement of Ibadan to Kano. We are waiting for the approval of the loan, when the loans come, you will see skeletal activities even before the loans come. Just watch out,” said Amaechi

The Minister further noted that the project which was initially billed to be delivered in May 2020, may now be delivered in January 2021 due to the delay caused by the onset of Covid-19 pandemic.

“Lagos-Ibadan rail project have suffered many delay in completion date due to challenges ranging from compensation to underground oil pipe line with the worse being the COVID19 pandemic which stop work on the project for three months.

“What I know is that we will run from now until the president commissions it. I am not covid. For those who have been following us, you know that for every station, we had 150 to 200 workers, now you have 10 ton20 workers. What we have agreed with them is that they should increase the number of workers and manage covid very well meaning that they should come with their face masks face shields and come to work.

“Government has to run and we have to deliver our promises to the people because that’s why we were elected and we don’t have time. If we just seat down in our houses and wait for covid to end, it may not end by 2023, lets hope that by January, this project will be ready,” affirmed Amaechi