Nigeria’s Minister of Transport, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has stated that
20 new coaches for the Abuja-Kaduna and the Lagos-Ibadan rail lines
would arrive the country in about 6 weeks.
Amaechi said this while answering questions from newsmen on his arrival
from China at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Sunday.
Explaining the thrust of his official visit to China, where he took
delivery of some new trains, Amaechi said, “We went for two items,
basically to get more locomotives and coaches. They’re all ready. It
will take six weeks to get to Nigeria and maybe one week to clear them.
For the Lagos trains it will be easy, it will take a day or two to get
it to the track, but for the trains coming to Abuja, it will take one
week or two to get it here. To my surprise, the coaches we released two
or three weeks ago to go to Kaduna arrived just within two days. So, we
hope that when these trains arrive Lagos seaport, we should be able to
get them fast.
“We are expecting twenty coaches, ten for Abuja-Kaduna and ten for
Lagos-Ibadan as a temporary measure, more will then arrive in the second
batch as we complete Lagos-Ibadan,” Amaechi said.
The minister while taking delivery of the new newly built trains in
China, did a test run of the locomotives and motored cars. He confirmed
that these trains were better improved and of higher technology than
what obtained previously. He added that more trains are still being
built for Nigeria and the next batch would be delivered as soon as they
are ready.
On maintenance, he said, he’s making sure that every contract comes with
a maintenance contract, while rail engineers from Nigeria are being
trained in China to take over the maintenance from the Chinese. The
reason for these maintenance contracts he said is that, “as Governor of
Rivers State, I made sure that everything I did in Rivers State was
maintained, I kept a maintenance contract going, what is happening there
now, I won’t know. So when people ask me, what do you do about
maintenance? The answer is, In all our contracts, you have a maintenance
contract. Like now, the one for Abuja has expired and I’ve just directed
them to renew the contract. Though I’m going to seek approval from both
the President and the cabinet, but the Chinese should not leave the site
for now.”
“Also, what is critical to the sustenance of of our railway system is
what we are doing in China. We are training our people, the Chinese
won’t live here for ever, they have to go, so our own engineers will
take over; and I met with some of those Nigerian engineers during my
China trip. We hope that in the coming years, they will come back and
then we can stop the Chinese maintenance contract in both Kaduna-Abuja
and Lagos-Ibadan…,” Amaechi said.
For Warri-Itakpe, the minister assured that it would be completed early
next year. “That one is nearing completion. It should be completed by
January/February, March latest, but that’s not the problem, the problem
is Abuja to Itakpe with the Seaport in Warri. We’ve signed all the
documents, we are waiting for the Chinese.”
