Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge train to begin partial service February

There are strong indications that the laying of tracks on the 152 kilometre Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail project from the Abeokuta axis will soon get to Iju, Lagos, by the end of January, thereby opening up partial passenger train on the new standard gauge corridor between Lagos and Ogun states, according to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).

Fidet Okhiria, managing director/chief executive of NRC, said on Wednesday while conducting journalists at Ijoko during an inspection tour of the project.

Okhiria said with the laying of tracks by the Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC) from DK 79 Abeokuta, already in progress, the contractors was working towards the completion of another 10-kilometre distance to DK 23 Iju, about 56 kilometres.

On the exact amount of compensations so far paid to owners of properties destroyed for right of way (RoW) along the corridor, the NRC managing director said,

“So far none of the property owners are complaining anymore as the Federal Government have started settling those affected except that after some of the elites among them have collected money, they will go back to court saying that the money is not enough.’’

Okhiria said that with the sequence the CCECC is going, that is from Iju to Ijoko, the formation for track laying by CCECC is ready, and after the stone, they will put the ballast.

Meanwhile, is still expected that, with the Chinese contractors laying 1.5 kilometres distance of track everyday, it is expected that by the end of January, laying of tracks from Ijoko to Iju would have been completed.

With the expected completion of tracks laying job from the DK 79 at Abeokuta to DK 23 at Iju in Lagos state by the end of January, the contractors will be faced with the arduous task of completing tracks laying from Iju to Apapa port complex which is very crucial in the easy movement of goods and services out of Lagos that is bedevilled with traffic gridlock caused by the movement of tankers and trucks moving containers in and around the seaport.

This implies that, passengers can make a return journey between Iju in Lagos state and Abeokuta in Ogun State on the standard gauge rail service, and open up the corridor up for other economic and social activities.

Many political watchers in the country believe that with the priority attention given to the project by the Federal Ministry of Transport and the intensity of work, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is using the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail project as a campaign tool to win more votes for his second term bid from the Southwest