By; MATTHEW UKACHUNWA, Lagos
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT), Mr. Sabiu Zakari, on Friday inspected the site where earth tremor occurred along the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Railway Project at Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State.
He expressed satisfaction with the action taken by the contractor, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), to prevent the earth tremor from obstructing or causing damage to the project.
“Remedial action is being taken on the area where earth tremor occurred. That is where gas line passes and there was a slide in the place,” Zakari explained.
He expressed confidence in the ability of civil engineering experts for the project in handling the natural occurence. The Permanent Secretary said, “I believe the work being done as assessed by our consultants and our engineers is what is supposed to be done. I’m satisfied.”
Responding to a question on whether work done to checkmate the earth tremor involved an extra monetary cost to the original contract value, transportation ministry chief said: There is no extra cost for now.
“Well, that is part of the contingencies that are likely to come up in this type of engineering. What is being done is within the parameter of what is provided,” Zakari elaborated.
According to him, “what happens when you’re doing an engineering work like this is that there are places where you make savings on what you want to achieve. So these types of provisions that are made, one will take care of the other.”
The earth tremor did not cause any vissible damage to the project, but a reliable source disclosed that whenever it rained, the highland collapses and fills the railway corridor in that spot with sand.
Zakari was not specific on when commercial activities will begin on the completed standard gauge railway project from Lagos-Ibadan, stressing that he did not want to commit himself because it is an engineering work. “I don’t want to commit and say exactly this is the date that commercial activities will start because as you have seen rightly, it’s an engineering work. The very earth tremor you’re mentioning, was it anticipated? They are things that come up as you go along doing this work. You cannot exactly say or predict this thing can happen, the FMOT permanent secretary declared in response to a question.
Engr. Fidet Okhiria, the Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), announced on the occasion that tracklaying of the remaining four kilometres to Ibadan from Lagos has been completed.
On the next line of action, he said: “We now want to concentrate on Lagos, and sooner than later we’ll start up operations from Iju to Ibadan.
The two lines of the tracklaying from Lagos to Ibadan have been completed up to Ibadan end from Iju in Lagos.
Chairman, Nigeria Railway Corporation, Alhaji Ibrahim Alhassan, led the inspection team.
