The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has disclosed that the rehabilitation of the 200-kilometre Minna-Baro railway track will cost the Federal Government more than N80 billion.
The completion of the project will afford people the opportunity to ply the Lagos-Abuja-Kano route with ease.
According to NAN, this was made known by the Managing Director of NRC, Fidet Okhiria, during a meeting with officials of the construction firm, Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), on Friday in Minna.
Okhiria who said that they plan to complete the project within 3 years, assured that the government will make funds available for it.
He said, “We are here in Minna to carry out a project take-off meeting of the Minna-Baro railway project.
“This meeting will enable us to plan our programme schedule to ensure that the contract awarded to rehabilitate the Minna-Baro rail track is carried out according to standard and completed within the stipulated three-year period.
“The contract sum is a little over N80 billion for the 200 kilometre railway line. We are interested in delivering the project within three years because the government will make funds available.”
The NRC boss said that the railway line would cut across the seven stations of Egba, Katcha, Baro, Lafiagi, Minna, Kateregi and Badegi in Niger State, adding that the construction firm has put up a request for the mobilisation of fund and was already mobilising equipment to the site.
He said, “The contractor had submitted their draft payment guarantee to the Ministry of Finance to mobilise them to start work. After confirming the document, we will advance payment to the company to commence work.’’
Okhiria said that the rail line, a narrow gauge, would be laid in such a way that it could be upgraded to a standard gauge in future.
Recall that in August 2021, the NRC announced the commencement of the Lagos-Kano train service in addition to the plans to restart the Kaduna to Kafanchan and Kaduna to Kano train service before the end of August.
The corporation said that it would rehabilitate 100 wagons to further strengthen the rail sector with 21 of the rehabilitated wagons to be used in the northern district of the rail service comprising Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Katsina and Zamfara states.
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