The Minister of Transportation, Senator Said Alkali has assured that the 387km first segment of the Kano-Daura rail project would be completed by 2025.
The minister disclosed this at the Kazaure rail Campsite in Jigawa State during an inspection tour of the ongoing works on the Kano-Maradi and the Kaduna-Kano rail projects.
Alkali in a statement on Friday said this was his second leg of inspection since his assumption as the Minister of Transportation and expressed his satisfaction as remarkable progress has been achieved between now and his last visit.
He outlined that the essence of the inspection is to have an on-the-ground assessment with his team alongside a team of engineers from the Nigeria Railway Corporation, project consultants, and contractors.
Alkali said: “I have just discussed with the contractor that we are going to segment the Kano-Maradi project by the grace of God. We are going to put Kano-Daura next year and Daura to Maradi in 2026 and Dutse to Kano in 2026.”
” We came all the way from Kano, we drove on the formation that they did, they are doing the earthwork and the culvert and this is a station where they have started preparing the rail lines and the slippers so that they will use their locomotive to convey the materials on the rail line.”
Regarding the federal government’s effort to facilitate trade, Alkali disclosed that he also inspected the existing narrow gauge that connects Lagos to Kano.
Alkali noted that completion and operationalization of the rail corridor would facilitate optimal use of the Dala Inland Dry Port for movement of cargoes by rail from Lagos to Kano.
“We are going to put the freight hopefully in the next month on the narrow gauge from Lagos to Kano,” he assured.