President Muhammadu Buhari will inaugurate the construction of the Kano -Kaduna rail project, north-west Nigeria in the next few weeks.
The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi who made this known on Friday in Abuja, the capital city at the weekly Presidential Media briefing organised by the State House Media Unit said all contracts for the projects had been awarded.
He disclosed that the project would now be funded from the ministry budgetary allocation as the Federal Government would not continue to wait endlessly for the loan.
According to him, the Federal Government has already paid 218 million dollars to the contractors, saying additional 100million dollars will be paid to them, making it 318 million dollars.
“In the next two weeks, we should be launching and commencing immediately the construction of Kano-Kaduna rail project.
“The president will be launching it and then we will commence construction immediately.
“The reason why we are commencing construction immediately is that all the necessary contracts have been awarded.
“We have been waiting for the loan for too long from China and the money has not come.
“So, we decided to fund it from the budget. We already paid 218million dollars to them and we are about to pay another 100million dollars to make it about 318million dollars.
“Kano-Kaduna is about 1.2billion dollars – the moment you pay about 318 million dollars, you must have paid one third of the project.
“So, we believe that by the time we get the loan we must have funded up to 600 million dollars.
“So, that should be able to take the project nearly half way before the fund will come because if we continue to wait for the loan whether, from China or Europe, we may likely not complete it before we go,’’ he explained.
The Minister also said that the government had so far paid N13 billion for the Port Harcourt – Maiduguri rail project, while another N10 billion would soon be paid to hasten action on the project.
Train Breakdown
The Minister attributed the Abuja/Kaduna train breakdown to lack of rolling stock adding that the train service had been running from 2016 carrying about four and sixty thousand passengers a year without rolling stock.
“Kaduna to Abuja train service is running. We are doing about 460,000 passengers in a year. We could do more. What was the problem last week? We have run from 2016 till now, we have not bought spare parts. We call it rolling stock. We need to replace the rolling stock. The one from Kaduna broke down.”
He said the application for permission to buy rolling stock for the whole country had been written to the President and he had approved it, but due process has to be followed, which will take about six months to complete.
“Due process document has not even left our office not to talk of going to Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). “
Mr Amaechi said some spare parts will be taken from Lagos to fix the trains, locomotives, and coaches that have spare part problems in the Kaduna-Abuja route.
“The spare parts we have now and the one meant for Lagos will be managed till we are able to stock again. We assure you that we won’t let further breakdown. We are human beings. But in case it happens, you should just know that it’s just the issue of spare parts.”
On vandalisation of railway tracks, the Minister said it would stop if the law is enforced.
“I have asked the Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation about their police. He said they were enough. I will meet the Inspector General of Police to give us enough men and materials so that we can use them to police the tracks. Having moved from narrow gauge to standard gauge, it has become a national security issue because it’s a daily movement, involving three, four, five, six trips a day.”
According to the Minister, the Railway activities from Ebute meta to Apapa in Lagos State will be to be on halt
“We have finished. But we discovered when we are about to commission it that there was a place where they used to dump refuse. And if we leave it, in the next one year, it will begin to sink. So, we saw it. We said swallow your shame, bite your bullet now than to wait after one year and somebody will say it is a bad job.”
He directed that ten meters of the tracks be removed and cargo movement by rail be stopped.
“Stop, don’t carry any cargo, take off the track, excavate 10 metres down by removing all the refuse and replace the soil and put back the track. We are given, two, three, four months to do all that. That is a decision I will communicate to them,“ the Minister added.
PIAK
