•Says work to get to Enugu by September
Kasim Sumaina in Abuja
The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi yesterday said the ongoing construction of the Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri Rail project was at a slow pace due to paucity of funds.
Amaechi disclosed this in Port- Harcourt shortly after inspecting the project.
Speaking to journalists, he said: “I heard they started work three days ago; the project was inaugurated last year but the project is at the level it is because enough funding was not given to them.
“Now, they have something that can make them go further from where they are. They have some level of funding and I hope that we secure the loan before they exhaust what we currently have and I believe the project would get to Enugu state by September.”
While expressing optimism that Chinese loan would be secured to speed up the work, the minister said there was need to deploy more security personnel to the site to avoid cases of kidnapping.
On his expectations for the project, he said: “I expect that they should have cleared up to Imo river, I expect that they should have started formation work and they should have gone far because there is nothing much to do here because it already exists, it is a reconstruction.
“So, I expect that by the time we come back, formation work should have commenced and should have gotten close to Elele and should have either gotten to Imo river or exceeded Imo river if we must meet the target of September to get to Enugu. We expect that they get to Enugu by September in terms of track laying.”
According to him, “I think we also need to ask them whether they will be able to construct the stations because there are stations that are yet to be approved by the cabinet. We need to go back to cabinet to ask for those approvals.
“I don’t know if we can dare take the cabinet for granted by asking them to commence building while we seek approval but it is risky because the cabinet can turn it down.
“But what we are trying to do in this narrow gauge line is to build the same infrastructure that you have on the standard gauge because you can never tell when you will have a standard gauge on this line.
“Now, when building the standard gauge on this line, if I were still the minister for transportation, I would have asked that whoever is designing should design it in such a way that they use the same stations, that way, you will reduce cost.”
Speaking on the coastal rail track (Lagos-Calabar), he said the contractors were yet to get a mandate letter from the ministry of finance, stating that: “I will give an update when I have met with them again. What I know is that the ministry of finance is yet to give them a mandate letter. When they get the mandate letter, then we can begin to harass them.
“They have not gotten the mandate letter to go and secure the loan, until they have the mandate letter from the ministry of finance, we cannot proceed.”
“The finance ministry however told me that part of the money is ready but they need to get a mandate letter from the ministry of finance”, Amaechi hinted.
