The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on Monday urged the China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC) to speed up work on the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway to enable the commencement of free train service from Lagos to Ibadan by November.
Amaechi gave the charge when he inspected the project alongside the Minister of State for Trasportation, Sen. Gbemisola Saraki, who joined Amaechi in inspecting the $2.1 billion project for the first time.
Amaechi said CCECC reduced the pace of work when the cabinet was dissolved.
“They need to increase their speed. They reduced their speed within the period that the government dissolved the last cabinet. Now, that we are back, my colleague, the Minister of State and I resolve to decide to push back the pressure to ensure completion. Our ambition is that by November we should begin trial of train services between Lagos and Ibadan for free.
“CCECC has not done too well. I used the phrase too well because at a time, they did us proud by trying to push this job. They claimed that at the end of the last government, we were owing them some money and we had not given approvals for the extra and additional jobs. But that’s not an excuse because we will still have given the approval. So they have slowed down so badly. We need to get them to that speed that they were before the last government was dissolved,” he said.
Saraki, who said she was impressed with the magnitude of work carried out on the project, described the railway modernization as a massive achievement by the Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
She urged Nigerians to continue to support the government in achieve “what is best for us as a nation.”