Rail transportation is one of the most efficient means of transportation the world over; as such, the Abuja light rail is a project that residents of the FCT await with great anticipation.
This means of transportation helps in reducing traffic congestions, shorten journeys, as well as relieve overloading on existing public transport services. So the light rail project is meant to ease transportation problems within the city centre and outskirts of Abuja.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) embarked on the Abuja Light rail project through its transport secretariat in May 2009, handled by the CCECC Nigeria Limited. During a media briefing in December 2016, the FCT Administration assured that the project will be ready by December 2017.
Daily Trust gathered that the original contract sum for the Abuja Light Rail project was $841, 645,898.00. After the contract was revised in August 2012, the contract sum became $823, 540,545.87, for the construction of 45.245km of double track rail lines with 12 stations and six lots.
These six lots start from Ring Road 1, which is the Metro station centre at the Central Business District and links through Gwagwa to Kubwa. Lot 2 starts from Gwagwa through the interchange centre to Nyanya- Karu, Lot 3 runs from the metro station through Idu Industrial Area to the airport, Lot 4 is from Kuje to Karshi, Lot 5 starts from Kubwa down to Bwari-Suleja, while Lot 6 runs from Airport via Kuje and Gwagwalada to Dobi.
According to the then Acting Secretary FCT Transport Secretariat, Mallam Abdulhamid Muhammad Suleiman, the project is still ongoing with 93 percent work done, adding that the engineering construction work of the rail project will be ready by the end of the year and trail operations, which consists of running of the tracks, will commence. Temporary operations, he said, will begin by the first quarter of 2018.
“We will have to run the tracks with locomotives to make sure that it is effectively in order before it begins to convey passengers. That is why we say trial operations will be temporary,” he said.
Suleiman also explained that the light rail project is divided into six lots (phases) designed to allow the railway operate in phases.
“Lot 1 was further segmented into 1a and 1b and we are working on Lots 1a and 3 which is the spine of the whole project because it is the most critical part of the Abuja rail network. Lot 1a starts from Idu to Kubwa through Gwagwa and then Lot 3 is like an intersection which starts from central area which is the Metro station to the Airport; the track ends very close to the Airport terminal building right inside the Airport and it transverses through Idu and all these fall under phase 1,” he explained.
He added that the Phase 1 is what is supposed to be operational on a temporary basis by the first quarter of 2018, to offer skeletal services to commuters.
Suleiman explained that Lot 1b, which is under Phase 2 of the project, is expected to convey passengers from Gwagwa through Life Camp-Gwarinpa, Garki and some parts of Wuse districts, adding that it would help to ease movements on these areas known for heavy traffic congestion.
“However, the Phase 2 contract involves the procurements of Diesel Multiple Units (DMU) or the rolling stocks which is the rail cars and other parts, workshop equipments, and its coaches. There are still other coaches that will consist of electrical multiple units; they would not run on diesel but electricity, and those will be ready in the next 48-50 months as the contract has already been awarded. Another component of Phase 2 is the operations and management of the rail,” he said.
When asked the challenges the rail projects faces at the moment, Suleiman said it was finance, adding that transportation infrastructures are quite expensive to undertake. He said they are working within the context of available resources because its financing is dependent on the FCT internally generated revenue through statutory and national budgets.
“We are also augmenting our efforts with loans from the EXIM Bank of China. What we are financing now is the counterpart, which is 40 percent. The remaining 60 percent is from EXIM Bank, so those are some of the challenges.”
He further commended the FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, for his disciplined way of managing resources, adding that the project had encountered serious financial setback in the past but with the current administration, the project has been ongoing.
“Most of the resources we have been able to save have been channeled to the provision of the Abuja light rail infrastructures, and we have been able to meet our counterpart payment which means that we will be able to access foreign loan, which is why the project is progressing. We are looking forward to exiting the engineering constructions part of the project by the end of 2017 and begin temporary services by the first quarter of 2018,” the secretary said.
