TheCable

Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, has described as embarrassing, the delay by the China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC) in completing the 10 railway stations along Lagos-Ibadan standard guage rail line.

Amaechi said this on Friday during an inspection of the rail project.

According to him, CCECC, the contractor handling the 156km rail line, reduced the pace of work between November and December.

He said the government needed to meet with the construction company to sort out the issue.

“The delay is becoming an embarrassment and I think we need to meet with the CCECC. We cannot continue like this. The speed has reduced drastically this time, we need to meet with the management of CCECC. We have a problem with CCECC honestly,” Amaechi said.

He also expressed displeasure over the work pace at Agbado, Kajola, Papalanto and Abeokuta (pictured) railway stations.

He said the contractor had promised to finish the stations within three months.

The minister insisted that the stations should be completed by the end of January 2020, and not by April when the project is expected to be inaugurated.

The minister said three years after the inauguration of the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge rail line, the contractor was still at the site working on power.

The federal government had commenced a free train ride from Lagos to Ibadan in November. The free ride, which is part of the testing phase of the project, will last till March 2020.