Lagos-Kano rail resumes operation in six weeks – SURE-P

Posted by admin Headlines, Kano, Lagos, State News Tuesday, September 11th, 2012

Operations will resume on the Lagos-Kano railway route in six weeks, the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme Committee has said.

This followed the intervention of the committee in the rehabilitation of the rail line two years after the Nigerian Railway suspended operations on the route.

NRC was forced to suspend commercial rail operations on the busy route when the crucial Akerri Bridge linking the northern and southern parts of the country was washed away by flash floods.

A statement issued by the Head of Communications, SURE-P, Mrs. Mary Ikoku, in Abuja on Tuesday, said the committee had invested undisclosed huge sums of money in the rehabilitation of the rail line.

Top officials of SURE-P, Nigeria Railway Corporation and the Project Implementation Unit of the Ministry of Transport, she said, had been on a week-long inspection tour of ongoing projects in train stations across the country.

A SURE-P committee member and Sub-committee Convener on Railways, Mr. Chike Okogwu, who led a team of inspectors drawn from a pool of professional engineers of PIU and NRC, after the inspection, explained that there was urgency in the move to get the railways back on track in line with President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda.

Okogwu said, “Today, I am glad to announce to Nigerians that the Akerri Bridge end has been tackled. We want to thank the Federal Government for intervening in the Akerri Bridge.

“Work has been going on and the contractors needed to be paid to energise work there. About four weeks ago, there was a minor challenge at Bridge 73. We are assuring Nigerians that in the next six weeks, the bridge would have been done and then the lines will open up and goods and passengers will move freely.”

The Chairman of the PIU, Mr. Eric Onyeiwu, said the weeklong verification exercise did not just enable the team to evaluate the work-in-progress at the various sites, but also to take useful and proper decisions.

Ikoku said although members of the PIU had been grumbled about the slow pace of work by some of the contractors, particularly in Asa community in Aba, which was contracted to Esser Nigeria Limited, they were, however, delighted by the overall performance of the contractors.

-Punchwp_posts