AYODELE ADESANMI, who was on the entourage of the Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory FCT) during an oversight tour of Abuja Mass Transit Rail project, reports the shock find of the committee.
THE Abuja rail project was conceived essentially to ease transportation and provide succour for commuters in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and its environs. The project, which was conceived in 1977, did not however come to fruition until May 7, 2007, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo, during an official tour of the FCT, performed the ground-breaking ceremony with a completion date of four years. The rail project was practically on a snail speed from 2007 till 2010, when the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, directed attention its way. The government then fixed December 2015 as completion date. With part funding coming from a $500 million loan from China-Exim Bank, the project was sure to take to the fast lane.
Though it was not completed in 2015, the project has shown signs of nearing completion. But a twist to the tale surfaced recently when the Senate Committee on FCT, led by Senator Dino Melaye, embarked on a tour of the site. Melaye, during the tour, alleged that the project cost was inflated by as much as N10 million per kilometre, adding that even when the length of the project was reduced, the reduction did not reflect in the cost. That has since become the subject of further investigation by the Senate committee. The rail, which was designed to carry commuters from satellite towns to the city centre, is expected to handle a combined daily figure of 400,000 riders. Some of the benefits of the rail project, when completed, include reduction of traffic congestion in the city, shortening distances and reducing pressure on existing public transport services.
The project had an initial cost of $841.64million, which was later reviewed to $823 million and it is being financed with a loan from the China-Exim Bank with the balance to be paid by the Federal Government and additional N10 billion from the Subsidy Re-investment Project (SURE-P) when it came on board. The project has passed through four different ministers namely, Alhaji Aliyu Modibo (2007); Alhaji Adamu Aliero (2008 to 2010); and Senator Bala Mohammed from (2010-2015. The present occupier of the seat, Mohammed Bello, is the fifth Minister to handle the project. The Chinese Construction firm, the China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC), which won the contract, moved to site in 2009, even though it was paid the sum of $148 million which represented 20 per cent of the contract sum, but said to be lower than the original mobilisation fee. According to the design, the rail project would be delivered in two different models – Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Rapid Rail Transit (RRT). It was designed to be run by diesel power but hoped to be converted to electricity when power become more stable in the country.
Originally, the completion date was fixed at 2013, but incessant changes of helmsmen at the affairs of the FCT and inadequate funding have combined to delay the completion date, which at a time, stood at the unrealistic 2015. Stakeholders, who are eager to see the project completed, have continuously worried at the slow pace of delivery on the sites. The administration of President Jonathan, which brought the project to a considerable stage, had promised to deliver it in 2015, but it eventually failed to ensure its completion, shifting the completion date forward once again.
When he came on board, the incumbent FCT Minister, Bello, pledged to ensure that the much awaited rail project would commence operations in the city. The House of Representatives had offered to assist towards early completion of the project when the House Committee on FCT embarked on an oversight tour of the project site. The committee led by Honourable Herman Hembe expressed satisfaction with progress of the project so far. FCTA’s Director of Public Building, Anwaninu Anthony, said that the project was conceived in 1977 as contained in the Abuja master plan, adding that inadequate funding was responsible for the delay on the part of the contractor to meet the December 31, 2015 deadline set by the previous administration. A member of the committee, Jibrin Satumari, said there might be another way of sourcing funds to complete the projects, especially funds from idle projects explaining that “I will prefer that the money earmarked for the building of the Vice President’s residence is channeled toward this project because of its potential to the people.”
However, the director of Transportation and Light Rail Project Implementation Unit at the FCTA, Kashim Ali, told the committee that the “sum of $249 million has been spent from the $500 million Chinese EXIM Bank loan which the Federal Government obtained, while $162 million has been spent by the Federal Government.”
Further twists emerged when the Project Manager of CCECC, Etim Abak, alleged that former President Obasanjo awarded the Abuja Rail Project in 2007 without engineering design or Memorandum of Understanding, and that that the former Minister of FCT and current governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, signed the $841.645,898 contract based on uncalculated estimate. Abak explained that the “contract was awarded based on a conceptual design and estimates were not properly done. There was no formal design submitted and rail bridges and crossover bridges were not captured in the contract.”
He claimed that the contract sum was $841.645, 898 and project completion period was 48 months while the scope of work was 60.67km standard gauge, with double railway tracks and associated permanent ways within FCT. He alleged that the contract, which stood at 60.67km, was inflated by N10 million per kilometre and that the length was later reduced to 45km, whereas the reduction did not reflect in the cost. He said that the amount for the 15.67 km dropped off from the project did not reflect in the final figure.
The committee chairman, Melaye, wondered why the project, whose length initially stood at 60.67 kilometres, was later reduced to 45.245 without cut in the initial cost. He disclosed: “If we are to spend $841 million for 60.67 kilometres and now you have reduced it to 45.245 kilometres and the only reduction in terms of monetary value is from $841.6 million to $823 million and with reduction of just about $17 million dollars— that, to me, is not commensurate with the reduction in length.”
He added: “The Federal Government has so far invested $31.5 billion and another $7.6 billion from the SURE-P fund and if you put these together, we have $39.1 billion invested in the rail project, leaving the balance of $113. 233,155.32million. The sum of $3 billion dollars was proposed in the 2016 budget of the FCT for the rail project. I did a personal research and looked at rail construction of the same specifications, of the same technology across the globe and one cannot but complain that the cost of this railway project in Nigeria is on a very high side.
The lawmaker wondered why it was costing the Federal Government so much to construct a railway of just 45 kilometres, unlike the construction of the same specifics across the globe questioning the rationale behind the government’s loan of $500 million from Exim Bank of China for the project, believing that the money the Federal Government had so far injected into the project was far enough to execute the entire project.
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