VENTURES AFRICA – Following a 60 percent completion of the first
stage of the Abuja Light Rail Project, the Federal Capital Territory
Administration of Nigeria – the administrative organisation of the
country’s capital city – has signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the China Civil Engineering Construction
Company (CCECC) to kick start the second stage of the project.
Mr Ivoke Ochiagha, Secretary of FCT Transport Secreteriat,
disclosed that the second phase of the project, whose total value is
estimated at $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 everyday. Additionally,
some 20,000 jobs are expected to be created by this initiative alone.
Minister of the FCT, Malam Bala Mohammed, also asserted that the
first phase should be ready for launch before the end of 2015. “We
are pushing the light rail to a logical conclusion so that we can have
a vibrant transportation. This is an addendum to the existing project
going on,” he said.
Effective transportation networks comprising road and rail networks
are essential to the wholesome development of any metropolis and,
indeed, any region. Africa continues to face crippling transportation
challenges that infringe on overall productivity; hence the need to
deploy effective transportation systems across the length and
breadth of the continent.
Three of such effective systems include the electric tramway
system, the light rail transit (LRT) which is currently being deployed
in Abuja and the subway system. A study on public transportation
systems by the Swiss National Science Foundation shows that the
electric tramway system can transport up to 20,000 people per hour,
the LRT can do same for 30,000 people while the subway can move
50,000 people in the same amount of time.
By Emmanuel Iruobe

www.ventures-africa.com/2014/09/fcta-china-sign-792-million-deal-for-abuja-rail-project/