Lagos-Ibadan railway: FG rules out litigation against Chinese contractors over December deadline

Romanus Ugwu and Lawrence Enyoghasu

The federal government has ruled out the possibility of instituting any legal action against Chinese contractors, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) should it fail to meet up with the December deadline for the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan standard guage railway line.

Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRA) Board Chairman, Engr. Ibrahim Alhassan, who spoke on the deadline, however, noted that the corporation is giving all necessary support to the Constitution company to avoid such legal battle.
It is coming on the heels of similar warning from the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, that the federal government will not compromise standard in the construction project.

Amaechi had reminded the CCECC that the ongoing works must be completed on time, preparatory for commissioning on January 1, 2021.

Issuing what appeared like a marching order to the CCECC project manager (stations), Mr.Li Depeng, the Minister said: “I will return again by the end of this month because we want to commission this route in January next year.”

Speaking exclusively to Daily Sun during the inspection of the project, Alhassan maintained that legal battle is the last resort if all efforts fails, evon as he expressed confidence that the contractors will deliver before the deadline.
“In all contracts there are penalties, that is why we are working together; where there are challenges, we solve it together and we can improve ability to deliver. We don’t want to go into legal matter with our contractors, it does not help matters. It should be that last resort.

“All what seems like fracas between us are to keep the Chinese on their toes and challenging them to their limit. These Chinese are humans also, so when you want to accelerate progress there might be compromise on quality, sometimes they might want to substitute what has been specified to what they might easily get but we don’t want to subtitle quality for speed. This administration is trying hard to deliver on this project before the end its tenure,” he stated.
Commenting on the new train and coaches, he argued that the bulk of the maintenance falls on the passengers lap, defending why train cannot be at full blast in Nigeria.
“The coaches are good but we need to maintain it otherwise they will breakdown quickly. The maintenance is not only for the NRC but also for the passengers. People are not use to this train. It will not be able to run at full speed because we need to put safety measures first.

“You can see situation at Agege and Ikeja that people put wares on the track, if the train is at 120km/h, it might spoil the wares or cause casualties. In most countries this train is at full blast, they have rail bridges,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Amaechi equally revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari will peteonally be on ground to commission the 157-kilometer long Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge project.

He further noted that after the completion of the project which started in March 2017, the next project that will likely kick off will be the Kano-Maradi rail line.

Speaking during the inspection of the stations on the Lagos-Ibadan Railway line, he revealed that the Kano-Maradi project is at the stage of loan negotiation, adding that they are even fast tracking them.
“We believe that the fastest project will be Kano-Maradi. They are already doing Front-end Engineering even before the loan. We are insisting on that and we believe that the Front-end Engineering should be able to end before January, so we should be able to start construction before then.
“However, they should start now to acquire right of way, pay compensation and start clearing the right of way so that we can prepare, pending when the Front-end Engineering is over. There is a transition period between now and January, I suspect Kano-Maradi will start first,” he added.