Minister lambasts contractor over Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Railway  – Blueprint Newspapers Limited

The Minister of Transportation, Saide Ahmed Alkali, has expressed disappointment at the slow pace of work along the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri narrow gauge undergoing reconstruction and rehabilitation.

The minister doubted the capacity of the contractor to complete the project in record time, describing the company handling the job as unserious.

Alkali spoke in Port Harcourt on Friday, when he visited the project site in Port Harcourt and Kom Kom Community, Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state.

He lamented that the project, which was designed to be completed in three years, had only attained 45 per cent completion between Port Harcourt and Aba after 12 months.

He said: “I am disappointed with what I see because this contract was signed for 36 months and it is to cover over 2000km.

“So far, even Port Harcourt to Aba, the project is just around 47 per cent completed. Ideally, it’s supposed to cover 47 per cent of the entire 2,000 kilometres, which by now, should be around Plateau or so and yet we are still struggling to be in Aba before the end of the year.

“I am not happy, not only that I’m not happy, I am disappointed. When I came when they were laying the rail lines, you can see they are using manual alignment to align the slippers in this century, during this era of technology.”

He wondered why the contractor exclusively utilised the 15 per cent funding provided by the Federal Government while withholding the 85 per cent counterpart funding.

He said: “I felt if you are not ready for something, don’t even start it, the funding was made on 15 per cent to be provided by the federal government, while 85 per cent to be provided by CCECC, so far since the project kick-started, the funding is only done with the federal government component of 15 per cent.

“So that shows how unserious CCECC is in terms of the Port Harcourt – Maiduguri reconstruction and rehabilitation project. We have to go back to the ministry because whatever you can do, you have to operate within the ambit of the law. Whatever the law provides I will make sure I enforce it.

“The contract was signed in the last two years, but the actual construction started last year, even within that time, if you cannot cover Port Harcourt – Aba in 12 months, then how can you cover over 2,000km in 36 months.”