FG and General Electric Reach $2bn Rail Rehabilitation Project Deal

Federal Government of Nigeria is presently in talks with General Electric over the concessioning of the narrow gauge lines across the country in its bid to revive rail transport across the federation.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi made the disclosure yesterday when he said that all old routes across the country will be rehabilitated in the agreement that would be signed before January 2017.

Amaechi said that the concessioning would be for a period of 20 to 25 years, during which time General Electric would run it after providing coaches on all the revived lines, Vanguard writes.

“We are negotiating to concession the old narrow gauge lines from Lagos, Kano, Funtua, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Aba, Umuahia, Enugu, Makurdi, Jos, Bauchi, Gombe to Borno. The entire western and eastern lines will be rehabilitated but we will concession the project to GE and they are bringing in two billion dollars to embark on the project,” Amaechi said.

“If we concession the lines to them and they run it with their money, then you can be rest assured that movement of goods will continue but at a slower speed.”

The Minister stated that the first segment of the Lagos-Kano Rail Line project to be completed would be Lagos-Ibadan for economic reasons and to decongest Lagos, before the 1.56 kms double gauge Lagos-Ibadan rail line will be completed in 36 months followed by the Kano-Kaduna rail line project.

The project is being undertaken in phases and only the segment between Abuja and Kaduna has been completed so far while the Lagos-Ibadan segment is still under construction.

Rail transportation was once the livewire of Nigeria’s economic activities but has since suffered complete neglect until recently.