President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the construction of the new Kano –
Kaduna railway at the cost of $1.2 billion, the Minister of Transport, Mr.
Rotimi Amaechi has announced.
Already, the federal government is negotiating with China EXIM Bank and it
is expected that the negotiation would end this year, to pave way for work
on the project to commence.
The Minister disclosed this during a visit to Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje
of Kano state explained the rationale behind the project saying: “I think
the President is doing that because the economy of Kano is also large in
the country and between Kano and Lagos, we have about a total of 30
million tons of freight, and that will help in conveying some of them to
Abuja, while we extend the construction to Lagos”.
Amaechi further revealed that the Lagos – Kano rail (narrow gauge) would
have more locomotives, before June 2017, stressing that “we are trying to
bring in about 100 locomotives to move between Lagos – Kano – Funtua and
Port Harcourt – Gombe”.
The flurry of activities around this initiative, he noted, would greatly
impact on Kano and reverberate on the national economy.
The minister then commended the government of Kano state for embarking
upon the construction of several new roads and other infrastructure,
despite challenging economic conditions, to such an extent that some
states cannot pay salaries of workers, describing the effort of the
Ganduje administration as very encouraging.
He also praised Governor Ganduje, who served as Chairman of the APC
Presidential Campaign Council on the recent re-run elections in Rivers
state, saying his leadership has given the APC in the state the courage to
confront the PDP in terms of votes and personal safety of the party
members.
In his remarks, Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje who acknowledged the
importance of the rail project explained that his administration is also
fine tuning moves to commence the Kano intra city light rail project.
The total value of the project, entailing four routes, which will all
terminate at Bata roundabout in the city, near the Kano Central business
district, is the sum of $1.85 million. 85 percent of the total contract
sum would be sourced from China EXIM Bank while the balance of 15 percent
would be offset by Kano state government.
“The rail project would save our roads and improve movement of goods and
services in Kano, which is the commercial nerve center of Northern
Nigeria, and parts of West Africa”, the governor enthused.