Lagos-Ibadan rail project will give value for money — FRC

The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) says the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail project has met the agency’s mandate of ensuring value for money and is expected to be completed according to standards.

Director of the Audit Department, FRC, Ibrahim Dauda, made the assertion during an inspection conducted by the agency’s team on the project in Lagos. The railway modernization project focuses on the Lagos-Ibadan section with extension to Apapa Port.

According to him, the project has substantially met the criteria for transparency and accountability in the management of the funds.

“The team have been to the site of the ongoing construction of the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail line which passes through Abeokuta. From the briefing we have received and what we’ve seen on the site, the project will be substantially completed and delivered.

“We are happy that the federal government has always been meeting up with its funding and the China Eximbank has been up too. Their commitment has assisted in the project. The Fiscal Responsibility Commission has the mandate to ensure that all projects promote prudent and transparent fiscal management in the country.

“This means ensuring that all projects have value for money, they are completed according to standard, transparency and accountability, particularly in the management of funds,” he stressed.

Dauda commended the government on efforts taken in ensuring the project becomes a reality, adding that “we can say that this project has met substantially that criteria. So, it is going to be to the benefit of the country that this project is completed as envisaged.’’

Also, the Resident Engineer, Ministry of Transport, Chukwudum Ugonabo, said that the federal government had always released funds as and when due for the project.

Ugonabo said that the contract which has a completion period of 36 months would come to an end in May 2020 and was broken into stages to achieve the deadline target.

The Project Manager, China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), Leonardo Portanova, while receiving the inspection team, revealed that the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail double track project may be completed before the deadline date.

He said the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail double track had reached a little bit above 60 per cent level of completion, adding that the construction has gone beyond the initial 65 to 75 kilometres out of the total 156 kilometers, starting from the Apapa Port as cargo handling operation to Iju-Agbado, introduced as a new station and to Papalanto-Abeokuta.

“All indications are showing that if things go as it should, we should be able to complete the project even before the completion date. Construction on the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail double track has advanced from the 65 kilometer to 75 kilometer distance,” Portanova satted.

The project manager also said that the railway modernization project would be stretched from Abeokuta to Ibadan by the end of June.