President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday kicked off the reconstruction and rehabilitation of a $3.2 billion rail line, saying that the project would serve for the import and export of goods for Niger Republic and other countries in the subregion through Nigerian ports.
Buhari virtually performed the groundbreaking ceremony from the presidential Villa, Abuja The President said that the rail line would also foster Trans-Sahara trade and contribute to the expected gains in the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, said that the project was part of the comprehensive plan for the rehabilitation and expansion of the Nigerian railway network.
He explained that the railway was cofinanced with the loan from a syndicate of Chinese financiers totaling about 85 per cent while the federal government would contribute 15 per cent of the project cost at $3.2billion.
In a goodwill message, the Plateau state governor and Chairman, Northern Governors Forum, Simon Lalong, expressed appreciation to President Buhari for the project which he described as huge and economically and socially beneficial to the sub-region.
The project when completed would traverse 13 states including Rivers, Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia, Anambra, Imo, Kaduna, Plateau, Bauchi, and Yobe among others.
It would also run from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri narrow gauge railway reconstruction project with new branch lines to Owerri, Imo State and Damaturu, Yobe State.
