Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi says the ground breaking ceremony of the University of Transportation in Daura, Katsina state will be performed in October.
Amaechi, who disclosed this during the inspection of Lagos-Ibadan railway project on Friday said the University will provide more manpower for Nigeria’s the railway.
The minister said plans are also underway to manufacture wagons and coaches at Kajola, Oyo state.
According to him “we are insisting that they can’t continue to manufacture coaches and wagons in China and sell to us, so as part of the benefit we will get out of the contract we have given them,they will build a factory in Kajola.
“For now they will manufacture wagons but they will progress from wagons to coaches and locomotives”.
He said the gridlock will be ove when the rail gets to the seaport and goods are moved by trains.
According to him , the target is to get to the seaport so that goods can be evacuated from the seaport.
Amaechi who reiterated the need to source for materials for the project locally, assured that Nigerians that are being trained in China will take over from the Chinese .
On the slow pace of the Lagos-Ibadan railway project, the Minister said the slow pace of work was due to the absence of a minister to sign the IPCs that were needed for progress to be made in the two months he was away.
“There are IPCs that nobody could sign other than the minister so I will sign them on Monday.
“On our part,We are owing them compensations for land acquisition and there are those approvals we need to get from the cabinet.
“There are over passes in Lagos,underpasses in Lagos like Agege which we can’t commence until we get approval from the cabinet,” he said.
He said the Lagos- Ibadan rail alone cannot remove the Apapa gridlock, which will only be solved completely with the completion of Ibadan-Kano rail.
Also, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) Fidet Okhiria explained that the tracks are already in place and have gotten to Ibadan.
