President Muhammadu Buhari will take a train ride on the new standard gauge railway line from Lagos to Ibadan by end of May, the minister of Transport, Rt. Rotimi Amaechi revealed.
According to Leadership Newspaper, this is pending the completion of the ongoing construction of railway stations and installation of communication equipment.
Amaechi revealed this at the weekend, during his routine inspection of ongoing construction of Lagos to Ibadan standard gauge railway project alongside minister of Railway Development, Ghana, Mr Joe Chartey and members of Senate Committee on Land Transport.
According to him, by end of this week, the contractor handling the project: China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has assured that 95 kilometres of tracks out of 156 kilometres of tracks required to reach Ibadan would have been laid.
Explaining further, he disclosed that already, laying of the second standard gauge railway tracks from Ijoko to Iju has commenced, while civil work from Iju to Ebute-Metta has reached advanced stage preparatory to laying of tracks in that axis.
Amaechi also said that construction of railway stations has commenced at Ebute-Metta Junction in Lagos, Agbado and Papalanto in Ogun State just as construction of the Moniya railway station at Ibadan, Oyo State would commence as soon as design for the station is submitted to federal government for approval.
He stated that the standard gauge railway track would be connected to the Ibadan Inland Dry Port to serve as port for clearing goods instead of the present situation whereby trucks form long queues at Apapa and Tincan Island waiting to either load or offload containers.
While calling for integration of railway network in Africa, the minister stated that the visit of minister of Railway Development, Ghana, Mr Joe Chartey, was to enable him assess work so far done by CCECC in Nigeria.
