Tobias Sylvester
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the sum of $3.02bn for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri eastern narrow gauge railway.
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Amaechi also disclosed hat the council approved the construction of a deep seaport at Bonny and a railway industrial park in Port Harcourt at a cost of $703.1m.
He, however, said the two projects would be at no cost to the Federal Government, saying they would be funded through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
“The Federal Executive Council has approved the award of contracts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri eastern narrow gauge railway, with new branch lines and trans-shipment facilities.
“The council also approved the construction of a new deep seaport in Bonny, under PPP and the construction of a railway industrial park in Port Harcourt.
“The railway line will be at the cost of $3,020,279,549. The industrial park, which is under PPP, at no cost to Federal Government, will cost $241,154,389.31. The Bonny deep seaport will cost $461,924,369, at no cost to the Federal Government.
“The Port Harcourt to Maiduguri narrow gauge railway will have new branch lines: from Port Harcourt to Bonny and from Port Harcourt to Owerri are new lines.
“There is another connecting narrow gauge to standard gauge at Kafanchan. There is a branch line from Gombe or before Maiduguri to Damaturu and Gashau,” he said.
KanyiDaily recalls that President Buhari had also approved a contract of about $1.96 billion for the development of the proposed Kano-Jigawa-Katsina-Jibia to Maradi rail line in Niger Republic.
