The federal government has assured that damaged tracks in Abuja-Kaduna rail would be restored in 10 days.
The Minister of Transportation, Senator Said Alkali made this known on Monday after an on the spot inspection of the ongoing clearing of the accident scene in Asham station in Kaduna.
He explained that work is progressing well, adding that the tracks would be restored in the next 10 days.
The minister stressed that the staff of the Nigerian Railway Corporation have been working day and night to ensure that the clearing and repairing of the damaged tracks are done at the earliest possible time.
Said noted: “Let me start by thanking Mr. President and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his support since the incident happened.
“He has given us support to ensure that we move the locomotive and the coaches and fixed the rail line so that we will be back in operation.
“From what I have seen, I also want to commend the managing director, NRC and his team because they are on site as you can see, day and night trying to restore normalcy after the incident that occurred.
“Actually, the incident occurred at a point where we have two rail lines. Normally, we are running around two trains at a time. So there are points where the two trains will interchange. So normally, we have a point there. That is where the accident occurred. However, I am not in a position now to pre-empt the investigation, to say why the incident happened.
“I am here with the full team from the Ministry of Transportation, Director of Railway and all his engineers and even the committee doing the investigation. The CCECC are here, Civil Rights Organisation, all of us are here. So that we ensure we have done justice to the investigation.
“I also want to commend the MD of CCECC and his team. He has been very supportive to our ministry and to the NRC since the incident occurred.
“At the time the accident occurred, The locomotive was carrying eight coaches. We have successfully moved four out of the place as you can see. We are trying to fix the infrastructure so that we have a bigger crane, so that we move the coaches and all the locomotive that are on the site.
“Inshallah, in the next 48 hours, we will be able to move all of them out of the site. And after that, if we didn’t have any weather challenge, in the next 10 days, we are going to restore the line.
“As you can see during my tour, where is affected by the accident is about 150 meters. So it’s not something too long. We will be able to fix the sleepers, the pallets and the rail track so that we will be back to operation. It is a cardinal responsibility of government to provide welfare for its citizens.”