Minister of Transportation Rt.Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has said that his zeal is to deliver to Nigerians the Lagos-Ibadan Railway Project in due time being the mandate given to him by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Amaechi assured that the confidence reposed on him by Mr.President would not be defeated by ensuring that the Lagos-Ibadan Railway project is delivered on target.
Speaking to newsmen in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital shortly after inspecting the Lagos-Ibadan Rail project on Friday, he said with the level of progress of work already achieved, he was sure of quality work delivery.
On his drive as it concerns the Lagos-Ibadan Railway Project, he said, ” one, as minister of transportation I have a responsibility that the President has assigned to me and i must deliver on it. If you recall, as Governor of Rivers State, I am always passionate to deliever on target, that same passion to deliver has not changed and as a person, I am always restless at delivering on responsibilities either giving or personal. That passion, I am still holding even as a minister of transportation”.
” The second is that the economy of Nigeria can be driven most importantly by linking the seaport to the hinterland because when these cargoes comes, they need to be evacuated on time. The more you are able to move both man and cargoes, goods and services to the hinterland, the more you create jobs, and the more you create jobs the more economic growth that you achieve, that is my drive.”, he said.
On the level of progress of work, Amaechi said, ” You can see that on the Abeokuta to Ibadan section of the Rail Line, there are places that they are doing civil works and we are pushing that they must complete the civil works before the rains. The Contractors have promised that before our next visit they would have gone far with the civil works. They have also promised that they would achieve kilometer 95 with track- laying from kilometer 81. We are pushing so that by the first to second week in April they should be very close to Ibadan with the track laying.”
According to Amaechi, the pace of work on the project may have slowed down due to ‘election break’ by the contractors but since resumed work, they would intensify efforts to meet up with project target.
” Because of the elections, most of the Workers traveled and they have just returned. Now that they are back to site, the speed of work will increase. We should commend them for the pace of work and the quality of work done. For them to have passed Abeokuta and gotten to Kilometer 82 completed with track-laying and promised that by the time we come back on the 28 of March they would have gotten to kilometer 95, one could conclude that their efforts is worth commending”, he said.