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The Blue Rail Line project is part of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping as a joint construction work between the Chinese and Lagos governments.
DAVID AGBA reports on the journey so far.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of this initiative. Over the past decade, practical cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative has continued to deepen and expand, making positive contributions to economic development, increasing employment and improving people’s livelihood in various countries, and has become a popular international public product and international cooperation platform.
The Belt and Road Initiative
Nigeria, as the ninth country in Africa to join the Belt and Road Initiative, is an important partner of China in Africa. The two sides have made in-depth development in infrastructure cooperation. In recent years, a large number of important projects including the Lagos-Ibadan Railway and the Lagos Airport Terminal have been completed in Nigeria, which have greatly improved the level of Nigeria’s infrastructure and continued to benefit the Nigerian people. On September 4, the Lagos Blue Rail Mass Transit (Blue Rail Line) built by China Civil Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd Corporation. (CCECC) was officially commissioned for commercial operation.
CCECC helps Lagos realise its rail transit dream
A Nigerian engineer who participated in the construction of the Blue Rail Line narrated his experiences and observations.
My name is Marvis Otoide Christopher, from Edo Sate, Nigeria. I studied Civil Engineering with approximately 13 years post graduation work experienced, I am currently working with CCECC Nigeria Ltd as a Project Engineer with Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Blue Line Project team.
For experienced and history, Lagos State is one of the states with high traffic volume due to the large population density. The regular commonly seen traffic congestion situation within the state has negatively impacted and affected the state economy, and also increased travel time and increased passenger time.
In 2013, President Xi Jinping’s put forwarded the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was initiated in order to address infrastructural gap and thus has the potential to accelerate economic growth across the Asia Pacific, Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. The BRI is a programme that is associated with a large plan of investments in infrastructural development for different sectors such as railways, roads, ports, and airports, as well as power plants and telecommunications networks. It is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in order to invest in more than 150 countries and international organisations.
As part of the benefit of the BRI, the Chinese company (CCECC) has constructed the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Blue Line scheme and the realization of this project has brought succor and solutions to human needs in Lagos State as this has positively impacted and benefited Lagos state in reducing traffic situation and also largely boosting the city’s economy. Presently, the usual traffic gridlock along the Eko-bridge area of Lagos state is reducing gradually , since the official commencement of the Blue Line Project Phase 1 section (Marina to Mile 2) on September 4 2023. Commuters have now discovered that, it is more convenient and reliable to travel through the Blue Line Scheme to their travel destinations within the travel corridor as the Blue Line scheme can help the commuters to calculate the travel time according to the journey timetable/ information of the arrival time and the departure time of the train provided at each station to guide passenger’s train movement awareness. , by so doing, this enable commuters to meet up with their business schedules and time targets.
Working with Chinese colleagues allows me to learn and grow
Being an employee of CCECC has been a smooth ride. I have enjoyed the comfort and friendly relationship with Chinese colleagues and also enjoyed the way of working approach of my direct boss. He is characterized with vision, being fair, flexible and supportive. He is an active listener that always listens to other’s needs and promotes empowerment he offers flexible work plan so that other aspect of human needs and existence can be met, promote empowerment, supportive, fair and always put aside personal preferences and favoritism in his dealing and engagements while discharging his official role and duty. CCECC is well equipped with high efficiency and advanced construction machinery and technology, it is a prayer answer for me to key into these opportunities in order to learn the required skills and to help me with will power to build my home town or my dream country, and also to help me further reshape my engineering expertise.
Due to the great significance of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit Blue Line Project significant value, appreciation to important members of the government like: General Mahammadu Buhari (Rtd); Former President of Federal Republic of Nigeria; Babajide Sanwo-Olu Governor of Lagos Sate, Kadri Obafemi Hamzat Deputy Governor of Lagos Sate, Mr. Tayo Akinmade Ayinde; Lagos State Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr. Frederic Abimbola Oladeinde; Lagos State Ccommissioner of Transport, Engr. Aramide Adeyoye; SA Lagos state on Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Abimbola Akinajo; Managing Director of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Babatunde Raji Fashola; Former Federal Minister of Works and Housing and Former Governor of Lagos Sate and the Chinese Consulate GeneralAmbassador; Cui Jianchun. during project milestone achievement visitation and the events, they have commended and praised the concept of the Blue Line Project.
The successful operation and commencement has alleviated traffic bottle-neck within the corridor as commuters have started enjoying the benefits brought by the projects’ success. The urgent needs for Lagos state government to speed up the phase 2 section (Mile 2 to Okokomaiko) construction works areas is now a heated discussion among the commuters, while riding on the train in order to extend their travelling comforts across the entire 27km rail corridor.
Impact on lives
The Blue Line Project has also impacted the lives of individuals. I have learnt that, as part of corporate education and training contribution to the society, CCECC has sponsored some students to study in China, these beneficiaries have acquired degrees in Civil Engineering and Transportation Specialty, upon the completion of their education and training, they returned to Nigeria and joined the Blue Line team as a way of given back the acquired knowledge to the society through transfer of knowledge. I am admiring the chance and opportunity likewise to study abroad in order to achieve more and ensure advanced technological exposure in the field of engineering and relevant disciplines so that environmental and human problems can be solved effortlessly and seamlessly with the application of modern approach in resolving human needs.
In a special and remarkable way, the Blue Line Project job has helped and still helping me to support my family financially. Several projects and responsibilities have been achieved and accomplished through savings realized from this project. The LRMT Blue Line Scheme is a project with high technical performance . In achieving the present success on the project, several technical sequence and process had been done ranging from design stage to site construction implementation phase.
Design and Build initiative
For the sake and interest of knowledge sharing, the LRMT Blue Line is a rail line system initiated by Lagos State Government and contracted to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) as Design & Build project. The entire Blue Line rail alignment runs a total distance of approximately 27km, and to be served by 11 stations buildings, 8km viaduct length (bridge) section inclusive of 0.5km Lagoon Sea crossing continuous beam and 19km at-grade level section. The track rail line is a double lines track rail line with more track lines at the terminal station and depot area for rail stabling and maintenance.
The track lines adopt electrical traction mode system “EMU (Electric Motor Unit) Scheme”, with a designed maximum speed of 100km/h. it is powered by its own electricity through a dedicated Independent Power Project (IPP) to avoid power outages.
Having this opportunity to participate in the laudable project, is a prayer answered for Engineering graduate to find practical situations in the field of study to enable onlearning and relearning process. It is my expectation that the Nigerian Government will provide us with an enabling environment so that the acquired knowledge and technical expertise can be further transferred to the local content engineers in order to ensure a well- collaborated and collective build system.
