The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaech, has assured Nigerians that the federation government would soon begin construction of four new rail projects across the country.
The minister gave the assurance on Friday in Abuja at the 2020 edition of Annual Ministerial Press Briefing on landmark programmes, projects and activities of the ministry and agencies in Abuja, adding that the contracts have been awarded.
He said the government had already obtained funds for some of the projects and is now waiting for cabinet approval to commence work.
“Once we are about to start Ibadan-Kano, we are waiting for funds from China, Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, we have a bit of the fund, but we are waiting for the cabinet to approve. We are also about to start Kano-Maradi, and Lagos-Calabar rail lines.
“But, one thing that is unique in all these projects is that the president early enough in his government directed that all rail lines must terminate at the seaports. There are a bit of adjustments in the pricing because we had to adjust Kano-Maradi to link up to kano-Lagos so that it will terminate at Lagos seaport.
“The Port Harcourt-Maiduguri is not only terminating at Port Harcourt seaport, it is going from Port Harcourt seaport to Bonny, where they are building a deep seaport,’ he said.
He decried the alleged growing incidences of sharp practices by ticket sellers on the Abuja-Kaduna route, lamenting that some complain that tickets of N2.500 are sometimes sold at N10, 000 by racketeers.
“We must match the tickets to face carrying the ticket so that we don’t run into security problems. Security is central, a man who may be a bomber may be given a ticket that is not meant for him and then we are in trouble.”
Earlier, the permanent secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, said arrangements had been in place to deliver the National Transport Policy by July 31, 2021.
