Rotimi Amaechi promises work will begin on Calabar to Lagos railway line in 2016

TRANSPORT minister Chief Rotimi Amaechi has promised that the current administration will revamp the nation's moribund railway network during the course of 2016 starting with the standard gauge Calabar-Lagos and Lagos-Kano routes.

 

Earlier this year, President Muhammadu Buhari, named Chief Amaechi, the former Rivers State governor, as transport minister with a brief to get the railways working again. Nigeria's comatose railway network has suffered from a chronic lack of investment over the decades, with a lot of the infrastructure still unchanged from that provided by the British colonial administration.

 

Yesterday, Chief Amaechi said the Abuja-Kaduna line would be completed in 2016 and work would also start in earnest on the standard gauge on the Calabar-Lagos and Lagos-Kano routes. He added that the Calabar-Lagos line is to traverse the Obudu Cattle Ranch, Uyo, Aba, Port Harcourt, Yenagoa, Otuoke, Ughelli, Sapele, Benin, Agbor, Asaba, Onitsha, Benin, Ijebu-Ode, Ore, Sagamu and terminate at the Lagos seaport.

 

He added that the Lagos-Kano line would start from Lagos and pass through Ibadan, Ilorin, Minna, Kaduna and terminate in Kano. Chief Amaechi expressed the belief that with the resuscitation of commercial traffic from Port Harcourt to Aba, the government has begun the revitalisation of the railway sub-sector of the economy.

 

Chief Amaechi said: “The construction of new lines and rehabilitation of old railway lines will generate over 250,000 direct jobs and more indirect jobs while having multiplier effects on economic activities. The current state of the railway is an indication of the serious neglect of this important sub-sector occasioned by poor policy initiation and implementation, which has led to the proliferation of privately-owned and operated road haulage services, resulting in unregulated and chaotic situation on the nation’s roads.

 

“Nigeria's Railway Corporation has been effectively reduced to an economically unviable venture dependent on government subvention without any return on the huge investments. The movement of petroleum products by rail will be re-introduced in 2016 and we have commenced and almost completed the narrow gauge rehabilitation, which will be retained for the movement of cargo.”

 

Speaking on what to expect in the maritime sector, Chief Amaechi said the government would streamline its agencies for more effective and efficient performance. He stressed that the administration was determined to ensure the clearance of goods at the ports within 48 hours.