ABUJA – There are indications that the Fed­eral Government may not be able to deliver the $1.96 billion Eastern rail corridor before the current adminis­tration winds down in May, next year.

Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo, gave the indications on Wednesday, citing paucity of funds.

While responding to media que­ries at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by President Muham­madu Buhari, he explained that the substantial 85% counterpart funding from the Chinese engineering company has refused to come.

It would be recalled that President Buhari had two years ago performed the groundbreaking of the $1.96 billion rail project, saying that it would stimulate economic activities in 14 states it covers.

The benefiting states in­cluded the five South-East states of Abia, Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi and Enugu as well as nine others – Rivers, Nasarawa, Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi and Gombe.

Also, the former Min­ister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, had said then that the Port Har­court-Maiduguri line would be delivered before the end of the tenure of the present administration.

But in September this year, while inspecting the work done so far, the current Minis­ter of Transportation, Sambo, disclosed that the contractor in charge of the project, Chi­na Civil Engineering and Con­struction Company (CCEC), had often complained of in­cessant attacks on its workers around the Abia State axis of the rail corridor.


He had said government was left with no choice but to halt the ongoing construction of the Port Harcourt-Maidu­guri Eastern rail line due to insecurity and incessant vandalism.


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“Now, the Eastern line is the line from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, it has been seg­mented in such a way that the first part of the work covers from Port Harcourt to Enu­gu.

“Now, the truth of the matter is that if there was a promise to deliver this line before the end of this admin­istration, this promise is no longer feasible because, when the contract was approved, it was approved on the premise that 85 percent will be funded through foreign loan, while 15 percent will be the coun­terpart funding for the na­tional budget.

“Since that approval, we have not been able to obtain that 85 percent foreign loan for this project. We have been funding it through the national budget on the basis of the 15 percent counter­part funding of the Federal Government. And therefore, funding has been a major challenge for this project”, he said.

On the status of the dredg­ing of the Calabar channel, the minister said the project, which had suffered series of setbacks, as a result of litiga­tions, will soon be resumed as President Buhari had di­rected his ministry, in collab­oration with that of Justice, to see to it that the issues are resolved amicably.

“You are aware that of the three ports (Warri, Port Har­court and Lagos), the NPA had encountered difficulties with the JV partnership in respect to the Calabar channel dredg­ing. This has been as a result of several litigations from both sides that the Nigerian Ports Authority had made with the joint venture partner Niger Global”, he said.

He noted that the issues have now been resolved, say­ing “following presidential intervention, the Ministry of Transportation and the Fed­eral Ministry of Justice have been directed to put in ev­erything they can to resolve all outstanding court cases with a view to having a full resumption of this very, very laudable project. This we are in the process and should be concluding very, very soon.”

While it is one of the old­est ports in the country, the Calabar Port has been oper­ating below its potential due to draft issues which has made it impossible for large vessels to navigate through the channel. As a result, the Lagos, Onne and Port Har­court ports have continued to receive more cargo traffic that ordinarily would have berthed in Calabar.

With the loss of its oil wells, the economy of Cross River State has been badly hit, a situation that has made the revival of the port to full potential an economic neces­sity for the state.

Earlier in June, the Man­aging Director of the NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, said pending when the issues are resolved, incentives such as tariff reliefs will be provided to make the port attractive to importers in order to divert traffic back to the port.

“We are ready to give tar­iff reliefs to ensure that por­ters bring in more cargoes into Calabar port because the more cargoes we have in Calabar, Delta and Warri ports, the less congestion in other ports and more economic activities at the Calabar port. We know one of the problems of Calabar port is dredging which has created draft limitations. The essence is to ensure we dredge the channel because it has become a hindrance to economic activities.”

The Calabar port is seen as strategic to economic activi­ties in the Eastern states due to its proximity to major mar­kets and production centres such as Ariaria and Aba in Abia State, and Onitsha and Nnewi market in Anambra State.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Works and Housing, Baba­tunde Fasola, who also spoke at the briefing, reiterated the resolve for the Buhari-led administration to complete the 2nd Niger Bridge before leaving office on May 29, 2023.

He said job on the multi-billion naira new bridge is almost complete, but for the disruption of work occasioned by the sit-at-home order being observed by the people in the South-East end of the bridge.

He explained that the sit-at-home being observed on Mondays have contributed to delay the speed of work as the contractors have lost many man hours just as he stated that those lost days are responsible for the delay in the completion of the project.

The former Lagos State governor, however, said that the remaining work in both the Obosi and Asaba sides of the bridge are progress­ing well, pointing out that the project despite the delay will be completed and com­missioned before the end of the present administration on May 29, 2023.

According to him, “I am certain that the 2nd Niger Bridge will be completed and commissioned before the end of this administra­tion. The work remaining to be done on the main bridge are just road markings, fix­ing of signs and fittings. It is completed if I may say hence it is being put to temporary use now.

“From the Obosi side in the Eastern part, work is on-going on the adjoining roads and would have been completed if not the sit-at-home order on Mondays which have slowed the pace of the work.

“Also, from the Asaba end of the bridge, you can see the stockpiling of sand and because it’s a marshy area, af­ter sand-filling, you allow the land to dry up. So we are do­ing the pre-fabricated stock­piling and soon the works will be completed”, he said.

Also responding to media queries, Minister of Environ­ment, Mohammed Abdullahi, on his part blamed some civil society organisations as well as some individuals in Rivers State for stalling Ogoni clean up through litigations.

He said this while reacting to allegations by the Move­ment for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) against the Hydrocarbon Pollution Re­mediation Project (HYPREP) charged with implementing problematic Ogoni Cleanup in Rivers State of slow pace of work as well as embezzle­ment.

“On the agitation by MO­SOP that accuses HYPREP of slow implementation projects. The Federal Govern­ment is as concerned as MO­SOP in terms of the seeming slow pace of the project ex­ecution. But, however, these are sometimes in most cases, the Federal Government is not the direct cause. Some­times you find that individ­uals and CSOs within Ogoni land, go to court to obtain one sort of order or another against HYPREP from pro­ceeding with some processes.

“So it has hampered the process as captured in PPP. As we speak now, there’s a group called the Good Con­science that has gone to court to restrain the federal government from continuing with that water projects. Now we’re installed, we can’t move in, we can’t proceed, we can’t make any headway.

“So, sometimes most of these slow processes are caused by individuals who have interests in specific areas or projects within the Ogoni land. But we’re as con­cerned as them and with the funding guarantees that we have now, we have in place very strong supervisory and monitoring evaluation team that ensures that it must achieve, and of course, even­tually for payments.

“So, we assure that going forward with the funding that we have in place, with the strong supervisory that we have now in place. And then, of course the assur­ances we’re having from the stakeholders, there should be a reinvigorated peace in terms of project execution in Ogoni land.”


https://independent.ng/1-96bn-eastern-rail-corridor-no-longer-feasible-fg/

I.9 billion usd.

Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.

14 states connected.

God please make it happen.

It's netter to under promise and over deliver, than over promise and under deliver

Naija my country

They abandoned the project because of insecurity in the South East...that sounds funny because the federal government is still executing projects in Borno State, the headquarters of Boko Haram.

A vote for Peter Obi is a vote for better Nigeria.

May God help us. The hardship is so much on Nigerians.

You see the insanity? This is probably the first rail that should have been built even before that nonsense maradi line that has no economic value.

Peter Obi is coming though, let a sound administrator take over and do things right for once.

The masters of the Afonjas have spoken. Now these vultures would soon come and do what their fallen demon has instructed them to do

Hmm

Who else is not surprized?,...cus am not.

They have carried Eastern people handicap.

Phoen1X:
Who else is not surprized?,...cus am not.

Only Nlfpmod.

Those igbos that are still fighting for One Nigeria and supporting either APC or the PDP should come out and explain to the igbos why Niger republic should get a rail lines financed by Nigeria but the former Eastern Nigeria can not get any!

You won't hear them talk! If it's Nnamdi Kanu taking actions to draw attention to this, they will all be hyperventilating. But right before our eyes, Buhari is taking billions of loans that will be repayed with Eastern Nigerias oil and gas earnings to build up another country with basic infastructures that we don't have in the east.

And they're all quiet!
The Soludos
Amechis
Umeahis
Ihejirikas
When will they talk?
Or they only talk to condemn Kanu and Ekpa?