By Bode Olagoke
Starting with the ban of commercial motorcycles during the administration of Malam Nasir el-Rufai, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has been mired in the problem of transportation.
The problem was exacerbated by the present administration of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) when it banned the green buses, which were popularly called “Araba”, from major routes in the Territory in 2013.
The ban, ever since, has spawned a situation where there are more commuters than available vehicles.
The long buses provided by the FCTA to cushion the effect of the banned green buses are not enough and some residents don’t like boarding them, “because they are slow.” Consequently, many of them get stranded at bus stops on daily basis either on their way to or from work.
They sometimes rely on private car owners who make brisk business while returning or going to work.
However, the FCTA has assured Abuja residents of an alternative means of transportation that would cushion the effect of the present situation. That alternative is the introduction of Abuja Light Rail.
And apart from it cushioning the effect of dearth in transportation modes, commuters who suffer in traffic gridlocks for hours across the Territory will have a respite.
Most notably, Nyanya-Mararaba axis of the city has suffered vehicular traffic gridlocks that leave commuters helpless for hours, because of the huge number of commuters from that area. This, many believed, insurgents capitalised on to unleashed terror on the helpless citizens when the detonated bombs at the popular Nyanya Motor Park in the first quarter of last year killing many people.
The coming of the Abuja light railway is however aimed to provide an affordable way for the city’s workers and commuters from the satellite towns such as Nyanya, Kubwa, Mararaba and Lugbe to have easier mobility from their areas to any part of Territory.
It is also seen as an opportunity to redistribute population, promote employment generation, and engender both social and economic growth within and outside the nation’s capital.
According to the Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, “The Abuja Light Rail is billed to handle about two million passengers daily, while its various stations are designed to provide investment corridors for shopping malls, restaurants, cafes, office precincts and other land uses”.
He stated that an estimated 700,000 commuters will eventually use the new light railway each day. The first stage of the project consists in lots 1A and 3. This amounts to 45.245 kilometre double-track rail lines which will traverse the Central Business District-Idu Industrial Zone-Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and Kubwa, while Lot 1B which MoU was signed recently is about 31kilometre, crisscrossing the FCT.
The Minister said, the Addendum II consists of final design and construction of Lot 1B of the Abuja Light Rail Project which is expected to take care of Garki I District, Wuse I and II districts, Utako and some districts in Phases II and III of the city.
The lots will be the first of an eventual six, bringing safe and affordable transport to commuters who travel to work in the capital.
He reiterated that the multiplier effects of these and several other on-going projects on employment generation and economic development would be massive.
The project, which is being executed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), is a 12 railway stations under construction. It covers lots 1A and 3 which make up the first phase of the ALR project.
The projects are scheduled to be completed within the first quarter of this year.
Giving a breakdown of the 12 rail stations, Senator Bala Mohammed said that Lot 1A has four stations while Lot 3 has eight. The four stations along Lot 1A are Gwagwa Station, Deidei Station, Jibi Station and Gwazango Station while the eighth stations along Lot 3 are Abuja Metro Station, National Stadium Station, National Park Station, Ring Road II Station, Wupa Station, Idu Transfer Station, Airport East Station and Airport Main Station.
According to him, the 12 stations would provide shopping precincts, cultural and entertainment centres to boost tourism. According to him, “The rail stations are places of high economic activities, boarding or alighting, rail transit management and operations, commercial and tourism activities.”
The Minister added that the locations of the stations were strategically designed to connect the FCT transportation network to districts and area councils. He said the remaining five lots, namely 1B, 2,4,5 and 6 are available for concession on design, build, operate and transfer basis.
The Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, said the train service would compete favourably with air transport service.
Stressing the importance of functional transportation system, the minister said: “The role of transportation in the socio-economic and political development of any nation cannot be over-emphasised as developments in all other sectors of the economy depend on the efficient performance of the transport system.
“Generally, the fundament goal of the transport sub sector under the Transformation Agenda is to develop an adequate, safe, environmentally sound, efficient and affordable, integrated transport system within the framework of a progressive and competitive national and international market economy.”
Umar further stated that the rehabilitation over 90 per cent of existing narrow gauge lines throughout the country was ongoing, being the first segment of the 25-year railway strategic vision.
The minister said intra and intercity train services had since been restored in Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Offa, Minna, Ibadan among others; adding that rail system targeted about five million passengers in 2014.
Meanwhile, the FCT Transportation Secretary, Jonathan Ivoke, said the project was very significant to the overall development of the FCT because every modern city needed an effective transportation network.
According to him, the second phase of the project, which is valued at about $792 million, was initiated because of the significant level of progress already made on the first stage. The rail length is expected to span across Garki Area 3, Wuse, Berger, Utako and Kubwa thus linking up major sections of the FCT and transporting up to half a million people every day.
Additionally, some 20,000 jobs are expected to be created by this initiative alone. He also asserted that the first phase should be ready for launch before the end of 2015.
But some residents of the Territory who spoke to Blueprint pleaded with the FCTA to make sure that the delivery of the project should not be beyond the present quarter of 2015, as earlier scheduled.
A resident of Mararaba who simply identified himself as Bala noted that, “words of Nigerian government shouldn’t be taken with seriousness because they could talk now and tomorrow they will change it”.
Bala lamented that, “we that live in Mararaba-Nyanya side are suffering traffic gridlocks a lot, and we believe that the light rail will put an end to our plight. So we want it launched immediately.”
