The Federal Government has assured that freight operations on the Lagos-Kano narrow gauge will commence soon.
The Minister of Transportation, Sen. Said Alkali, gave the assurance during an inspection tour in Kano, expressed satisfaction with the pace of work, hoping that the contractor, China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) will deliver the project as outlined.
“We inspected the rail line from the existing narrow gauge to the Dala Inland Dry Port because that is where we are going to drop the containers. By May, latest by June, we are going to put that corridor into freight from Lagos to Kano.”
Emphasising the benefits of the project, Alkali was that “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.
“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.
The China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), who are the contractors handing the project had earlier disclosed that freight services may commence operations soon on the Lagos- Kano narrow gauge rail line because the line has been linked up to, Zawaciki Dala Dry Port, the commercial city of Kano.
The Minister visited Kaduna-Kano, the site towards Dala Inland Dry Port in Kano, and proceeded to kano-maradi, Kazaure, passed through Dambata to Kazaure and finally Daura, where he inspected the Federal University of Transportation in Daura.