Ahead of the flag-off of the Iju to Abeokuta train ride on the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail on the 6th of February, 2019, the Federal Government has assured Nigerians that there will be two months of a free train ride from Iju to Abeokuta.
Speaking on Friday after his routine inspection of the project, the Honourable Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi explained that rocky terrains in Ibadan have slowed down work on that axis of the project.
According to Rotimi Amaechi, “Come 6th of February, 2019, the Vice President, Prof Yemi Oshinbajo will take a train ride from Iju to Abeokuta to flag-off that segment of the Lagos-Ibadan rail project. Except if it clashes with his protocol arrangement, which I am yet to confirm, then he will be here that day.”
On the issue of litigations confronting the project, the Honourable Minister explained that only from Lagos to Iju are there issues of litigations.
In his words, “from Iju to Abeokuta, we don’t have any issue of litigations. It is only from Lagos that such exist, and the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) will sort their compensation soon.”
On the free train ride, Amaechi stated that, “After the flag-off by the Vice President, we will run free train rides from Iju to Abeokuta for two months. The project is about 70% completed.
” Where we have challenge now is at Ibadan. The contractor said they have to blast through rocks, which might slow down the pace of work there. They have already started doing that. They have gone far with the civil works.”
On the issue of enough coaches, the Minister explained that currently, there are not enough coaches for passenger services.
“We don’t have enough coaches here, so I have directed that two coaches should be moved from the Warri-Itakpe train services to the Lagos-Ibadan rail to allow for more coaches since passenger traffic is not as high over there as we expected, thereby bringing to number of coaches on Lagos-Ibadan rail to four,” the Honourable Minister added.
