President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the construction of the new Kano \u2013
\nKaduna railway at the cost of $1.2 billion, the Minister of Transport, Mr.
\nRotimi Amaechi has announced.<\/p>\n
Already, the federal government is negotiating with China EXIM Bank and it
\nis expected that the negotiation would end this year, to pave way for work
\non the project to commence.<\/p>\n
The Minister disclosed this during a visit to Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje
\nof Kano state explained the rationale behind the project saying: \u201cI think
\nthe President is doing that because the economy of Kano is also large in
\nthe country and between Kano and Lagos, we have about a total of 30
\nmillion tons of freight, and that will help in conveying some of them to
\nAbuja, while we extend the construction to Lagos\u201d.<\/p>\n
Amaechi further revealed that the Lagos \u2013 Kano rail (narrow gauge) would
\nhave more locomotives, before June 2017, stressing that \u201cwe are trying to
\nbring in about 100 locomotives to move between Lagos \u2013 Kano \u2013 Funtua and
\nPort Harcourt \u2013 Gombe\u201d.<\/p>\n
The flurry of activities around this initiative, he noted, would greatly
\nimpact on Kano and reverberate on the national economy.<\/p>\n
The minister then commended the government of Kano state for embarking
\nupon the construction of several new roads and other infrastructure,
\ndespite challenging economic conditions, to such an extent that some
\nstates cannot pay salaries of workers, describing the effort of the
\nGanduje administration as very encouraging.<\/p>\n
He also praised Governor Ganduje, who served as Chairman of the APC
\nPresidential Campaign Council on the recent re-run elections in Rivers
\nstate, saying his leadership has given the APC in the state the courage to
\nconfront the PDP in terms of votes and personal safety of the party
\nmembers.<\/p>\n
In his remarks, Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje who acknowledged the
\nimportance of the rail project explained that his administration is also
\nfine tuning moves to commence the Kano intra city light rail project.<\/p>\n
The total value of the project, entailing four routes, which will all
\nterminate at Bata roundabout in the city, near the Kano Central business
\ndistrict, is the sum of $1.85 million. 85 percent of the total contract
\nsum would be sourced from China EXIM Bank while the balance of 15 percent
\nwould be offset by Kano state government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rail project would save our roads and improve movement of goods and
\nservices in Kano, which is the commercial nerve center of Northern
\nNigeria, and parts of West Africa\u201d, the governor enthused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the construction of the new Kano \u2013 Kaduna railway at the cost of $1.2 billion, the Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has announced. Already,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n