Kaduna to Kano rail construction starts this month — Amaechi

Transport minister Rotimi Amaechi says the extension of the Abuja-Kaduna rail line to Kano wll begin this June.

He disposed this during the official commissioning of the facility on Thursday in Lagos.

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President Muhammadu Buhari performed the commissioning.

“We have about three or four projects. This month, we will start Kano-Kaduna and then we will also start Port Harcourt to Maiduguri which also is CCECC and then Kano-Maradi” he said.

Mr. Amaechi also called for the maximum utilisation of the commissioned Lagos-Ibadan rail facility.

“The celebration is not enough, it is the impact that works have on the economy; the goods and services, the personnel it would have to move in record time” he said.

He also decried the delay in the loan facility to complete the Ibadan-Kaduna rail line.

“While we are celebrating that, we are not happy that up till now the China Exim Bank is yet to approve the loan for Ibadan to Kano because we need to start that and complete it quickly because that is my fear” he said.

“We are grateful that the Chinese government through the China Exim bank was able to give us the loan at a concessionary rate to construct from the seaport down to Ibadan. We hope that we get money to be able to construct from Ibadan to Kano so that we can complete the track and make sure that business takes place” he noted further.

He noted that: “We got money from China Exim Bank, we paid counterpart funding. We did put pressure on CCECC and delivered on time. In terms of quality, what we have is of good” he assured.