President Muhammadu Buhari may perform the ground-breaking ceremony for the take-off of the University of Transportation in September, the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has said.
The President is also expected to unveil the ground-breaking of the factory for manufacturing locomotives, wagons and coaches, the minister said.
Amaechi said while the university would be sited at Daura, in Katsina State, the factory will be at Kajola in Ogun State.
He said the factory would use local materials to manufacture its product. The minister was accompanied by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Alhaji Ibrahim Alhassan Musa, NRC Managing Director Fidet Okhiria and top officials of the ministry as well as consultants and other stakeholders.
Amaechi embarked on the tour barely 48 hours after he was sworn in to bring himself up to speed on the work pace on the Lagos-Ibadan speed train.
The minister admitted that the project had suffered a little delay due to the inability of the contractor to get approvals for its Interim Payment Certificates (IPC). He promised to sign the certificates and get the approvals of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to ensure that the project goes on as planned.
According to him, the contractor would have delivered the project by December, if they had received their money earlier.
Amaechi said since the Federal cabinet is in place, all approvals would be processed. The minister said once money is paid, work on the project would be speeded up.
He said the government was determined to ensure that the project gets to Apapa Ports before the end of this year.
According to him, attention will not only be on passenger activity but also on cargo freight to decongest the ports and lift the 30 million tonnes of cargo out of the ports by rail.
“Our target is that they would get to the sea port so that we can get the goods at the sea port. So, if we can eliminate congestion, we will be able to reduce what people regard as Apapa gridlock,” Amaechi said.
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