Amaechi Defends Cost of Chinese Funded Railway Projects
“What we are negotiating with the China Exim Bank is to build railway projects that are much bigger and this includes the stations, signals, electricity and generators, dual locomotive engines as well as coaches.
“I have even heard criticism saying that the cost of the projects are inflated, however, the Kenyan project is only 472km long between Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa costing $3.2 billion.
“This comes to $7.5 million per km. Meanwhile, the Ibadan-Kano line is 1,500km long while the Calabar-Lagos railway line is 1,550km, but will cost us $5.2 million per km to construct,” he said.
Amaechi added that the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan leg of the railway line, which will be extended to Kano, had already started and was scheduled for completion by December 2018.
“As you know, the National Assembly approved the external borrowing component for the commencement of the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge line. So the project has started and is scheduled for completion in December 2018, so that by January 2019, we can commence modern train services between Lagos and Ibadan,” Amaechi explained.
The minister said all the standard gauge projects would be accompanied by modern train stations that would have shopping arcades like international airports and train stations overseas.
In this regard, he said four such stations are to be constructed between Lagos and Ibadan, while smaller ones would be constructed on the route to Abuja and other cities.
“We are building four large modern stations that will have shops and facilities for commuters to buy their tickets through e-channels. Two will be in Lagos – one in Apapa and the other at Ebute Metta – then one in Abeokuta and another one in Ibadan. Then we will have smaller stations en route to Abuja and other cities,” Amaechi said.
The minister explained that the modern rail projects would come with dual locomotive engines so that they can run on electricity but switch to diesel in the event of power failure, noting that Nigeria’s share of the counterpart funding for the Lagos-Kano and Calabar-Lagos lines was 15 per cent, while the Chinese would fund the balance of 85 per cent.
On the number of jobs that would be handled by Nigerians during the construction of the projects, he said the federal government, in its negotiations, had insisted that 90 per cent of the jobs must go to Nigerians.
He also allayed concerns over single source contracting for the projects, saying the China Exim Bank had assured the federal government that there will be competitive tenders for the jobs, but they must go to Chinese firms that have bid for them.
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