By LLawrence Ekwonu
Minister of Transportation, Hon Rotimi Amaechi, has charged the China Civil Engineering Construction Company. CCECC, to engage residents of communities along the Lagos-Ibadan rail corridor to create enough under and overpasses as a means of preventing accidents following the level of progress of work on the route.
Daybreak recalls that residents on the railway corridors have raised concerns over the impact of the project on their communities as a result of the non availability of underpass and pedestrian bridges for the locals which is likely to increase accidents and cut off many communities.
Transport minister, Amaechi has charged CCECC to correct the situation while on an inspection tour of the route to access the level of work done.
He said that communities along the rail corridor had written him many times, complaining of inadequacy of under and overpasses.
He added that the communities had also complained of erosion owing to work done on the standard gauge which left the grounds very high.
“These communities will write, when they write, I will vet it to the Permanent Secretary, the Permanent Secretary will vet to the Director (rail) and I wouldn’t hear about it again.
“We are being unfair to them because they gave us all the cooperation we wanted. These communities have been nice to us. Why do we want to visit them with what was not there before we came?”, he asked.
“what I want is for the engineers to take a study, village by village of what impact our rail line must have caused to these communities vis-a vis our Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA. He said.
Amaechi also warned the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCECC that ongoing works must be completed on time, preparatory for commissioning on January 1st, 2020.
