Minister of Transportation, Senator Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali, has revealed that Muhammadu Buhari University, Daura in Katsina State will commence academic activities by October this year.
He disclosed this when he led his ministry’s delegation on an inspection tour to the school’s permanent site in Daura on Friday.
The minister also said the school had already submitted its courses to the National Universities Commission (NUC) for confirmation and determination of number of students to be admitted.
Alkali said, “I hereby commend the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) for building this university as part of their corporate social responsibility. I want to challenge other companies to emulate them by building either a school, hospital or something.
“We are also appealing to the company to assist the university with a takeoff grant to enable it begin full operations as planned,” the minister appealed.
On his part, the new Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Umar Adamu Katsayal, said the university had been provided with modern facilities to aid learning, including hostel for male and female students.
Meanwhile, the minister has promised that the Kano-Katsina-Maradi rail line project will be completed by 2025.
He also expressed his satisfaction with the level of work done so far by the contractors.
He spoke in Daura, Katsina state on Friday, when he led an inspection tour of the ministry to the 387-kilometre rail project awarded by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The minister said, “Actually I am impressed with what I have seen so far. We came all the way from Dawanau (in Kano) to where we are (Daura) so that we can assess the level of the execution of the work in compliance with the specification of the contractor.
“From Kano to here, almost all the major part of the site clearance has been done and I am pleased with what I have seen.”
Former President Buhari had in February 2021 performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of standard gauge rail line project. Work did, however, not commence fully until last year.
The railway line spans about 387km from Kano to Maradi, in Southern Niger Republic, and a branch line from Kano to Dutse.
Similarly, another 93km branch line will connect Dutse, the capital of Jigawa State to Kano.
The project was awarded to Mota Engil, a Portuguese construction company at the rate of $1.959 billion.
