The federal government has said freight services may soon commence on the Lagos-Kano narrow gauge rail line in June, 2024.
This is even as the contractor handling the project, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), has announced that the rail line has been linked up to Zawaciki Dala Dry Port in the commercial city of Kano.
This was disclosed on Thursday by the contractors, when the minister of Transportation, Senator Sa’id Alkali, visited the site for an on-the-spot inspection of the project in Kano State.
The minister said the commencement of freight operations would preserve the livespan of the nation’s highways as well as save more Nigerians from dying in auto accidents.
The minister expressed satisfaction at the pace of work on the Kano-Maradi standard gauge rail corridor, stating that there was a marked improvement from what he saw during his first inspection visit to the site.
He also disclosed that plans were underway to segment the project for easy, efficient and faster completion.
The minister also said: “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 Ministry of Transportation and Engineers from the Railway Corporation and the consultant and the contractors, so that we ensure compliance in term of time and in term 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 Kano-Daura next year and Faira to Maradi in 2026 and Dutse to Kano in 2026.”