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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigeria’s Minister of Transport, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has stated that
\n20 new coaches for the Abuja-Kaduna and the Lagos-Ibadan rail lines
\nwould arrive the country in about 6 weeks.<\/p>\n
Amaechi said this while answering questions from newsmen on his arrival
\nfrom China at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Explaining the thrust of his official visit to China, where he took
\ndelivery of some new trains, Amaechi said, “We went for two items,
\nbasically to get more locomotives and coaches. They’re all ready. It
\nwill take six weeks to get to Nigeria and maybe one week to clear them.
\nFor the Lagos trains it will be easy, it will take a day or two to get
\nit to the track, but for the trains coming to Abuja, it will take one
\nweek or two to get it here. To my surprise, the coaches we released two
\nor three weeks ago to go to Kaduna arrived just within two days. So, we
\nhope that when these trains arrive Lagos seaport, we should be able to
\nget them fast.<\/p>\n
“We are expecting twenty coaches, ten for Abuja-Kaduna and ten for
\nLagos-Ibadan as a temporary measure, more will then arrive in the second
\nbatch as we complete Lagos-Ibadan,” Amaechi said.<\/p>\n
The minister while taking delivery of the new newly built trains in
\nChina, did a test run of the locomotives and motored cars.\u00a0 He confirmed
\nthat these trains were better improved and of higher technology than
\nwhat obtained previously. He added that more trains are still being
\nbuilt for Nigeria and the next batch would be delivered as soon as they
\nare ready.<\/p>\n
On maintenance, he said, he’s making sure that every contract comes with
\na maintenance contract, while rail engineers from Nigeria are being
\ntrained in China to take over the maintenance from the Chinese. The
\nreason for these maintenance contracts he said is that, “as Governor of
\nRivers State, I made sure that everything I did in Rivers State was
\nmaintained, I kept a maintenance contract going, what is happening there
\nnow, I won’t know. So when people ask me, what do you do about
\nmaintenance? The answer is, In all our contracts, you have a maintenance
\ncontract. Like now, the one for Abuja has expired and I’ve just directed
\nthem to renew the contract. Though I’m going to seek approval from both
\nthe President and the cabinet, but the Chinese should not leave the site
\nfor now.”<\/p>\n
“Also, what is critical to the sustenance of of our railway system is
\nwhat we are doing in China. We are training our people, the Chinese
\nwon’t live here for ever, they have to go, so our own engineers will
\ntake over; and I met with some of those Nigerian engineers during my
\nChina trip. We hope that in the coming years, they will come back and
\nthen we can stop the Chinese maintenance contract in both Kaduna-Abuja
\nand Lagos-Ibadan…,” Amaechi said.<\/p>\n
For Warri-Itakpe, the minister assured that it would be completed early
\nnext year. “That one is nearing completion. It should be completed by
\nJanuary\/February, March latest, but that’s not the problem, the problem
\nis Abuja to Itakpe with the Seaport in Warri. We’ve signed all the
\ndocuments, we are waiting for the Chinese.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n