The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on Friday, ordered stoppage of work at the ongoing Omi-Adio Railway Station — a project under the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail line.
The minister cited compromise of standards by the contractor as reason for the order.
Amaechi gave the directive when he got to the station during his monthly routine inspection tour of the ongoing project, which he commenced from Lagos in company of others.
According to him, the discovery of non-usage of stone for flooring at the station was one of the benefits of continuous inspection the project.
“One of the benefits of this inspection is what is happening here now.
“Now, the contractor has been seen to be doing very poor quality job in this station.
“We say stop and they have to start afresh.
“The implication is that if we didn’t stop here like we didn’t at Olodo (rail station), we won’t know what they are doing. If we didn’t stop here, they would have laid these things and proceeded.”
The minister said he had directed the consultant to ensure that there would be a consulting staff, who is an engineer, in every station to ensure quality.
He said the consultant must be on ground in each of the stations always and not on visiting basis.
On progress made so far in track laying, Amaechi said the contractor had met the Federal Government’s target, but must work harder on construction of stations for speedy delivery.
According to him, there is the need to speed up work on stations and deliver it by February, which is the government timeline.
He said the argument of contractor was to deliver by April 2020, but the government’s argument was that they needed more hands and equipment to complete on time.
