The Federal government of Nigeria has again lived up to its promise of making transportation easy for Nigerians as it has commenced work on an inter state railway project, which is presently taking effect from Pen Cinema (Lagos) with a demolition exercise that has made way for construction of a new train track to accommodate a completely new train.
According to a staff of Chinese Civil engineer Construction Company, (CCECC), Ogochukwu Okafor who spoke with DAILYFAMILY yesterday December 13, it was gathered that the railway track is meant to run from Lagos to Ibadan.
CCECC Construction men at work
“The federal government just signed this new project of a new train track which will go from here to Ibadan Expressway.
“If you get to Iju, Fagba you will see that new tracks have been fixed there already.
“For now we are retaining the old track.
Smooth drum roller smoothing the new expanded track to Accommodate new train
Speaking about the duration of the project Okafor further noted that the project which was signed by Vice president Yemi Osinbajo will take them five to six years to come to its completion.
“The FG has thought about this project before embarking on it. This project was initiated to lessen the stress of traffic in the country and make transportation affordable for people, at least from Lagos to Ibadan for now.
Also buttressing what his colleague said, another staff of CCECC, Monday Livinus, who also spoke with us, noted that the new track being constructed will welcome a new train which will be more conducive than the old ones we have been seeing.
“It will be more preferred than the previous one. This new train will be more conducive, it will be well maintained such that there won’t be any hanging on it. In fact, from what we gathered, the new train will be so conducive that it will have Air condition in it”.
Meanwhile the construction project ongoing there has aroused mixed feelings for traders and residence living within the pen cinema, Agege axis as traders have been displaced likewise some residence, having their own share of the demolition project embarked on by the Federal government.
In a discussion with a trader, Taibatu Kazeem who use to have her shop very close to the train track before it was demolished, she noted that she has been trading there for almost 20 years now.
The trader who spoke in Yoruba said.
“All the traders trading beside this rail track have all been sent packing and this is where we now manage.
“I have been managing here for 20 years now and after the death of my husband, at a time I left to come back again since I knew that I had to cater for my children who are still in school.
“When the government workers started the project, they threw away our wares and some of us were not around. In fact our colleagues who witnessed the demolition helped us pick out goods lying around.
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“Though some government staffs were said to have come on Monday to collect names of traders affected by the demolition so as to own a shop somewhere we do not yet.
Commenting on the rail project, Mrs kazeem, noted that
“The rail project will make the city clean and the city good
Another widow, Adunni Sorinmade who also spoke about the ongoing project noted that it is a good one.
“They own their road and they want to use it, and what they are doing we like it. They have informed us of this demolition before. They are also planning to expand to this place that we are occupying presently.
She further noted that officials from the government have visited them to discuss an optional sales point with them.
“They have collected our names on Monday and their plan is to get a good place where we can trade for us” she added.
As at the time of this report, effort made to reach some officials of the Nigeria Railway Corporation for their reaction to the development proved abortive.
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