Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said Monday that the ever busy Abuja-Kaduna rail line will take delivery of 10 additional coaches to ease challenges faced by passengers plying the route on a daily basis.
The Minister stated this in Lagos Monday while on a tour of railway facilities linking different part of the city to neighbouring state of Ogun.
When added, Amaechi said the challenge of standing faced by some passengers on the two-hour ride from Abuja to Kaduna and vice versa would be addressed reasonably.
“The reason we are allowing standing on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line is because the insecurity has made it unbearable for you to say listen gentlemen, we are insisting on sitting. But once we get the next 10 coaches we are sending to Kaduna, the situation where passengers stand inside our coaches will be reduced. Although it will not solve the problem of addressing the 3,700 passengers we convey but at least it will reduce it.
In his words, “the actual number of passengers which that service can take or the sitting capacity is about 1,000 plus but we are carrying 3,700 daily. So if you add 10 coaches of 84 passengers per coach you will know that we are under pressure. We know that when the coaches come and we make it more regular the pressure will be reduced.”
On Kajola Railway factory agreement signed recently, the Minister said: “In signing the agreement between Nigeria and the Chinese company, we agreed with them that they should produce most of the materials they need locally and they said it would be a bit difficult for them. So we reached an agreement that they should start assembling wagons.
“Five years after that, they should start producing wagons and assembling coaches and locomotives and ten years after that, they should start producing locomotives and coaches here. Their argument is that if they produce, we will buy from them instead of buying from outside and I told them that we will enter into agreement to buy from them. That way, we will be able to pay naira and save the scarce dollars that we have. ”
He also added Nigeria is not bearing any financial cost in the establishment of the factory and the proposed transport university.
