MINISTER of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, yesterday, reiterated Federal Government resolve to ensuring an operational rail transport nationwide by December, especially in South-East geopolitical zone.
Senator Umar spoke after the 14th National Council of Transport in Enugu.
The 4-day conference, which had as its theme:”providing safe and secure transport” was a melting pot for the 36 Commissioners of Transport and other critical stakeholders in the sector who were at the conference to reflect on past experiences and plan for a better transport sector with a view to formulating a workable transport policy in the country.
The Minister said “a lot of safety measures has been put in place in the marine, rail and road sector. The essence of this gathering is to come together to discuss and see how effective these measures has been, if there are challenges, we appraise and know how to eradicate them.”
On the South-East rail rehabilitation, he said the rail line segment from Port-Harcourt-Gombe would be completed by December as the security situation around Maiduguri improved.
Speaking, Managing Director, Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, Adesheyi Sujiwade, said, “though there was a delay in payment for the contract to the contractor handling the South-East rail rehabilitation, it has now been resolved. The fund for the contract certificates was released not long ago through the Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Progromme, SURE-P. The good thing about this project is that being a SURE-P project, the payment is guaranteed. Now that they have been paid, you will notice that there has been a remarkable improvement in the speed of construction.
“The contractor now has a few kilometers to relay tracks from the Imo-River to the Port-Harcourt Station.
Once the relay is completed, the blasting will re-commence and in addition, all the stations have been renovated. Before the end of this year, train operations will start at commercial scale at the Port-Harcourt area.” Then Port-Harcourt-Aba-Umuahia-Enugu inter-city mass transit will commence.”
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