The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), plans to begin construction on a 5.76-kilometer rail track in Abuja, as part of its efforts to improve the nation’s capital’s transportation system. This was announced by Zakari Dobi, mandate secretary of the FCTA transport secretariat, during his recent visit to the vandalized light rail track, station, and Idu training center.
According to him, the overall cost of embarking on the rail track construction as allowed is $272 million. He stated that the secretariat was working tirelessly to return to the site for the building of the 5.76-kilometer rail track as well as the repair of the track’s vandalized sections.
He stated that the bill for the rail track construction was before the FCTA permanent secretary and that it would subsequently be presented to the FCT minister. Dobi expressed hope that the minister, who was so concerned about the Abuja light rail project, would pass the bill promptly.
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He said that the outing was shaped by two factors. The first one was to be able to evaluate and assess the degree of vandalism on the track. Secondly, he stated that due to challenges in office space in Area 11, the Federal Capital Territory Administration Transportation Secretariat should consider relocating some of its departments to the Training Center at Idu Rail Station.
He stated that even though he had already been informed on the subject of vandalism before he took office, what they had observed was awful. Dobi claimed that they wanted to return to Abuja to install a 5.76-kilometer rail track. He added that they had seen some of the recently vandalized areas, and he believed that the prior projections on repairing the vandalized areas would still accommodate what they had observed.
According to Dobi, if the rail track operation was on all of the time, the degree of vandalism would be reduced. He also reckoned that FCTA would repair all vandalized sections. Dobi also stated that they were going to look into concerns to see if they could come up with solutions to completely halt the vandalism. However, he said that he knew that the first step was to restart operations.
