The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has frowned at the dysfunctional state of the Abuja light rail and directed the permanent secretary to complete payment to the Chinese concession company in order to conclude rehabilitation of the rails in a short period of time.
Wike who toured the light rail from the metro station to the Abuja airport told the contractors, Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company CCECC to reduce their one-year timeline for the completion of the vandalized portion of the project to at most eight months.
He further asserted that the task of restoring the Abuja metro had become crucially fundamental as part of President Bola Tinubu’s promise to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians within the shortest possible time.
READ MORE: Illegal Structures Distorting Abuja’s Master Plan Will Go Down – FCT Minister, Wike
He said: “I know that we have a metro station in Abuja, and it is not working, why is it not working? Can we fix it within a short time?”
“This is a good project. This is one of t he projects that we will hurriedly complete and put to use. The funds are available and I have directed the Permanent Secretary to pay the contractors.
“Transportation is one of the sectors we intend to intervene in the short term to reduce traffic congestion within the city.
“People can only have confidence in the rail, if the existing one is working, we will make this route work before we talk of another route”.
“I assured the public that the rail transport system is a project we will take to a logical conclusion.
“Before commencing another project, we will need to determine which areas are the most traffic areas. This is very important to decongest areas with traffic congestion,” he said.
