Nigeria will require more than four trillion naira to complete the Lagos-Kano standard gauge railway project, says Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi .
The Director General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation says Thursday while addressing journalists in Kaduna State that the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration has lived up to the 2015 campaign promises by delivering the change promised.
According to him, the high cost of completing the project is the reason why it has been moving at a slow pace because huge amount of money is required to finance its speedy completion.
“Doing Lagos-Kano, we are looking for about N3trillion and N4trillion,” Amaechi said. “Is that the kind of money you get easily? The budget is between N7trillion to N8trillion, if we gave only Lagos-Kano the sum of N4trillion then we will be giving half of the budget and we won’t be able to pay salaries.
“So, it is a gradual process, that’s why we want to rehabilitate the narrow gauge so that while we are slowly constructing the standard gauge, things will be running on the narrow gauge.”
Amaechi added that the project when completed, will boost socio-economic activities in the country stressing that the Federal Government is rehabilitating the narrow gauge rail lines to enable the trains shuttle between the south to the northern part of the country pending the completion of the standard gauge
Amaechi had said on Sunday during an interview that the APC government of President Buhari is taking Nigeria to the Next level adding that this is the reason why President Muhammadu Buhari is embarking on a 2019 elections.
