By Adedapo Adesanya
In the coming days, President Muhammadu Buhari will inaugurate the construction of the Kano-Kaduna rail project, the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has confirmed.
Speaking in Abuja last Friday during the weekly presidential media briefing organised by the State House Media Unit, he said already all contracts for the projects had been awarded.
The Minister said the project would now be funded from the ministry budgetary allocation as the federal government would not continue to wait endlessly for the loan.
According to him, the central government has already paid $218 million to the contractors, saying additional $100 million dollars will be paid to them, making it a grand total of $318 million.
“In the next two weeks, we should be launching and commencing immediately the construction of Kano-Kaduna rail project.
“The President will be launching it and then we will commence construction immediately.
“The reason why we are commencing construction immediately is that all the necessary contracts have been awarded.
“We have been waiting for the loan for too long from China and the money has not come.
“So, we decided to fund it from the budget. We already paid $218 million dollars to them and we are about to pay another $100 million to make it about $318 million.
“Kano-Kaduna is about $1.2 billion – the moment you pay about $318 million, you must have paid one-third of the project.
“So, we believe that by the time we get the loan we must have funded up to $600 million.
“So, that should be able to take the project nearly halfway before the fund will come because if we continue to wait for the loan whether, from China or Europe, we may likely not complete it before we go,” he said.
The Minister said the government had so far paid N13 billion for the Port Harcourt – Maiduguri rail project, while another N10 billion would soon be paid to hasten action on the project.
