Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has ordered the Chinese company handling the Lagos to Ibadan railway modernization project to carry out fresh work on some stations where he noticed the poor quality of work being executed.
During his monthly inspection tour of the project at the weekend, Mr. Amaechi noticed the substandard work at the Omi-Adio station and promptly ordered the excavation of the floor of the station which he said was done without the use of stone on the floor by the contractor.
In his words, the Minister said the monthly exercise always pays off because he is able to ascertain the quality of jobs and materials used at different stages of work on the railway project, sometimes having to order a fresh start.
He said, “You all can see the benefits of this inspection tour is what is happening here now. Now, the contractor has been seen to be doing a very poor quality job in this station.
“We say stop and they have to start afresh.“The implication is that if we didn’t stop here like we didn’t at Olodo (rail station), we won’t know what they are doing. If we didn’t stop here, they would have properly laid these things and proceeded.”
Consequently, he told reporters that he has directed the project consulting firm, team to station staff at all the stations from Lagos to Ibadan to monitor works at every stage to ensure the non-compromise of set standards.
However, Mr. Amaechi commended CCECC for the completion of the laying of the track from Lagos to Ibadan, a distance of 156 km, which he said has met the Federal government target.
He thus set February as the deadline for the completion of work on the stations and urged the contractor to engage more hands in order to speed up the work.
While assuring that the much-anticipated project would be delivered by April 2020, the Minister reiterated the need for purchase locally made equipment and materials that are suitable for use in the project rather than import them from China by the contractor.
“We need to speed up and be able to decongest Apapa. We cannot decongest Apapa if they don’t get there on time,” he said.
“No matter how fast we are to Ibadan, if we don’t link Ebute-Metta to the seaport, then it is useless. We really have to decongest the seaport,” he told journalists.
