The federal government has said that freight services may soon commence operations on the Lagos- Kano narrow gauge rail line.
This followed the contractor, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) announcement that the line has been linked up to Zawaciki Dala Dry Port, the commercial city of Kano.
The Minister of Transportation, Senator Sa’id Alkali, made the disclosure when he visited the site for on the spot inspection of the project in Kano State.
He hinted that the commencement of freight operations would preserve the life span of the nation’s highways as well as save more Nigerians from dying in auto accidents.
Alkali, who expressed satisfaction at the pace of work on the Kano-Maradi standard gauge rail corridor, said that there was marked improvement from what he saw during his first inspection visit to the site.
He, however, said that plans were underway to segment the project for easy, efficient and faster completion.
The minister noted: “This is the second leg of my inspection since I took over as the minister of Transportation and the essence of the inspection is to see by myself with a team from the minister of Transportation and Engineers from the Railway Corporation, the consultant and the contractors so that we ensure compliance in term of time and in terms of specifications but the impression I have from the last visit I came, the progress is remarkable from what I have seen.
“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.”
“I have just discussed with the contractor, we are going to segment the project by the grace of God. We are going to put kKano-Daura next year and Faira to Maradi in 2026 and Dutse to Kano in 2026.
“It is not this one that is ready for freight. you know, the inspection is in two phases, the one we did today, we inspected kaduna to kano and Kano to Daura and Daura to Maradi.
“The one for Kaduna to Kano, the contractor is CCECC. We are going to put the freight hopefully in the next one month from Lagos to Kano on the narrow gauge.
“We inspected the rail line from the existing Narrow gauge to Dala Inland Dry Port because that is where we are going to drop the containers. That one still stands, by May, latest by June, we are going to put that Corridor into Freight from Lagos to Kano.
“By this, it will bring the cost of business to be low. We will reduce the menace of road traffic accidents. We will save our highways and the multiplier effect is on the GDP growth of the country.
“I visited Kaduna-Kano, the site towards Dala Inland Dry Port in Kano. And from there, we proceeded to kano-maradi, we are in Kazaure now, we passed through Dambata to Kazaurei and we are proceeding to Daura, to inspect the Federal University of Transportation in in Daura.”
The minister also visited Kaduna-Kano, the site towards Dala Inland Dry Port in Kano, from where he proceeded to Kano-Maradi, Kazaure, passed through Dambata to Kazaure and finally Daura, where he inspected the Federal University of Transportation in Daura.