The Federal Government revealed it has completed 700km of railway currently operational nationwide.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, in an interview on Sunday.
He added that the mileage was part of about 5000km to 6000km, which the present administration planned to embark upon, citing the Abuja-Kaduna railway, the Itape-Warri and the Lagos-Ibadan as the projects that had been completed.
Over N1 billion has been paid into a special account as the ministry’s contribution to repay part of the loan collected for the rail projects, Amaechi said.
”We have awarded a contract to three more companies if you add these ones I have mentioned and one is 225km Itape-Warri.
”The one from Lagos to Ibadan is 156km, then the one from Abuja-Kaduna is about 186km, so close to 700km of rail completed and carrying out commercial activities.
”Within this period as the minister, we have never paid money to the government but we got to the Ministry of Finance and asked them to open an account where we pay money every month as our own contribution for repayment of the loan.
”And I think we have gotten over N1 billion already in the last few months. Every month that we pay, we are able to return close to N200million per month,” the Minister added.
The Minister also revealed that the FG has not finished the loan negotiation with China but has commenced from budget, and not from loan, the construction of Kano to Kaduna.
Recall that Amaechi revealed that the Federal Government is leveraging alternative funding mechanisms to rehabilitate old rail lines and modernise the rail system in line with its 25-year strategic vision.
He added that FG recovered most of the failed locations on the Narrow Gauge corridor and is also taking precautions in the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report on the standard gauge corridors.
He stated that the establishment of rail projects was aimed at reducing the cost of transportation and boosting the economy; since economic activities drive development in any country.
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