FCTA Misses Deadline on Completion of Abuja Light Rail Project

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The November-December 2017 proposed delivery of the Abuja Light Rail is no longer realisable following the inability of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to meet the target.
The light rail is a strategic project designed to ease the transport burden of commuters in Abuja by linking up several communities with the city centre.

The contract for the light rail project is undertaken by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) at a cost put at $823 million (about N299 billion).
However, after many years of delay the completion and formal handover of the project will still remain on hold.
FCTA officials have fingered the late arrival of the coaches from China as the reason for the failure to realise the project on schedule.

The coaches have berthed at the Apapa Port, Lagos but government is in a fix because the nation’s bad road tracks make it almost impossible to transport the heavy machinery to Abuja.

FCTA Transport Secretary, Kayode Opeifa, declined to offer more insights on the situation when we sought official position via the phone last night.
“We said the project will be completed by the end of the year and we are still on course,” he said before the phone went off.

He refused to receive and return subsequent calls to his line last night
But FCTA sources in the know said the Light Rail service is expected to be inaugurated in January 2018, after the coaches and locomotives are coupled for the train service to be test-run.
“As you are aware, the coaches meant for night.-run have arrived in Lagos and being cleared. It is only a matter of when the coaches are delivered in Abuja for the train light train service to commence,” a source said last night

The total length of the double track rail project segmented into three Lots is 45.245 kilometres.
The strategic Lot 3 will connect the new International terminus at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport to the Central Business District Central Station, enabling travellers the comfort of getting to the airport by train instead of the regular means of cabs.
At various times, FCT Minister, Mallam Mohammed Musa Bello, had declared the project more than 98 per cent completed, assuring that residents would begin to ride on the trains by Christmas.
This assurance was hinged on the completion of the major components that will facilitate the take off of the project.

All the 12 railway stations, including the main hub at Idu have been completed and installed with mechanical and electrical works.
In addition, 13 railway bridges, 50 culverts, 15 flyover bridges, nine pedestrian overpasses and bridges are said to be 100 per cent completed.
These are in addition to locomotive rolling stock depot plus communication and signaling centres.