Buhari to inaugurate Kano-Kaduna rail project soon – Minister

President Muhammadu Buhari will inaugurate the construction of Kano -Kaduna rail project in the next weeks, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, disclosed Friday in Abuja.

Amaechi, who was speaking at the weekly Presidential Media briefing organised by the State House Media Unit, said already all contracts for the projects had been awarded while the loan for the project was not forthcoming from China as earlier planned.

He said the project would now be funded from the ministry’s budgetary allocation as the federal government would not continue to wait endlessly for the loan.

He added that the federal government had already paid 218million dollars to the contractors, saying additional $100 million would be paid to them, making it $318 million.

“In the next two weeks, we should be launching and commencing immediately the construction of Kano-Kaduna rail project. The president will be launching it and then we will commence construction immediately.

“The reason we are commencing construction immediately is that all the necessary contracts have been awarded. We have been waiting for the loan for too long from China and the money has not come.

“So, we decided to fund it from the budget. We already paid $218 million to them and we are about to pay another $100 million to make it about $318 million.

“Kano-Kaduna is about $1.2 billion – the moment you pay about $318 million, you must have paid one third of the project. So, we believe that by the time we get the loan we must have funded up to $600 million,” he said.

He added that the government had so far paid N13 billion for the Port Harcourt – Maiduguri rail project, while another N10 billion would soon be paid to hasten action on the project.