Extensive Surveillance Ongoing To Protect Rail Infrastructure- Alkali
By Stella Enenche, Abuja
The Ministry of Transportation is collaborating with security agencies to implement extensive surveillance measures to protect the nation’s rail infrastructure.
Minister of Transportation, Senator Sa’id Alkali disclosed this on Monday while inspecting the completed portion of the Kano- Markafi 102 kms track railway project.
According to Alkali,”Nigerian Railway Corporation are working hard to ensure that these vandals do not destroy our properties.
‘We are deploying so much major surveillance in conjunction with the security agencies to ensure that these properties are not allowed to be vandalized”.
He further disclosed that government has made significant progress on the Lagos to Ibadan rail line, while the Ibadan to Kano section is underway.
This was as the former parliamentarian noted that containers are now being transported from Lagos to Kano, marking an operational milestone.
The Minister, however, stated that, the project faces financial constraints, with the bulk of funding coming from the China Development Bank, adding that the federal government is only responsible for 15% of the counterpart funding.
Nonetheless, he assured that efforts were ongoing to secure additional fiunding for the Ibadan /Abuja and Kaduna/Kano segments, as the President has directed the Vice President to engage in bilateral discussions with President Xi Jinping of China.
While expressing optimism over completion, Alkali revealed commendable progress in ongoing discussions with the Chinese government.
“ The president has directed the vice president to engage President Xi in a bilateral discussion on the financing of Ibadan to Abuja and Kaduna to Kano. So far, that of Kaduna to Kano has been released.We are just trying to cascade the final stage for the drawdown of the loan so that they will have the financing and that of Ibadan to Abuja is also under very serious engagement with the Chinese government.
“We are just waiting for the final procedure with the Minister of Finance to be brought down. So far we are using the appropriation component. And the contractor was able to raise some money in anticipation of the loan,”he said.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Land Transport, Adamu Aliero said the National Assembly is considering stringent legislation that could impose death penalty on those caught sabotaging public installations.
“The National Assembly is thinking of coming up with a very strong legislation that will make it criminal. If possible, any vandal caught sabotaging public infrastructure, the punishment should attract the death penalty. Probably if that happens, it will go a long way in reducing vandalization drastically.
“It is very unfortunate that it is not only the rail line that has been vandalized. As you rightly know, power installations, oil and gas installations, and bridges have been vandalized,” he stated.
He highlighted the financial challenges facing the project and expressed the committee’s commitment to securing adequate funding through discussions with the Debt Management Office, the Minister of Finance, the Attorney General of the Federation, and the Minister of Transportation.
“There are other challenges connected with the project, particularly the funding arrangement, which we intend to discuss with the Debt Management Office, the Minister of Finance, the Attorney General of the Federation, and also the Minister of Transportation. Because we have oversight on railways.
“And we will do whatever is humanly possible to ensure that this project is completed in time.And we will lobby our colleagues in the National Assembly to ensure that this project does not suffer from inadequate funding,”
On her part, the House Representative Member, Blessing Onuh lauded the ministry for the progress of work seen but said that despite the ongoing job that is being carried out by the CCECC there is more to be done because railway transportation is very important to the growth and development of every nation.
She also assured the ministry of their support “we need to give it the much-needed attention as it stands. They need funding for the job to be completed, to meet the timeline. And we as the House and also the Senate will be doing anything, everything that we can to ensure that we attend to this issue as soon as possible,
“We also resolved between ourselves, the Senate and the House, to go back and discuss further on how we can review the contract and see how we can install anti-theft mechanisms to stop people or vandals from vandalizing the existing tracks that we have on-going,” she said.
