₦airaland Forum

PRESS RELEASE FG TO  FLAG- OFF EASTERN RAIL CORRIDOR 9TH MARCH 2021 - TRANSPORTATION MINISTER

The President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, @MBuhari will perform the groundbreaking ceremony for the Eastern rail corridor on 9th March, 2021.

The Minister of Transportation, @ChibuikeAmaechi disclosed this during inspection tour to all the stations from Mobolaji Johnson Station at Ebuta Metta to Ibadan station over the weekend.

He further disclosed that the President has also approved the redirecting of the Eastern line to two new spurs namely: Abakaliki, Ebonyi State and Awka, Anambra State.

Similarly, the Minister  mentioned that the FG has approved the commencement of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail project & is also negotiating loans for Lagos-Calabar rail project.

On the take-off of the Ibadan-Kano rail project, Amaechi informed that the government is still seeking approval for loan to enable it take off. Speaking on the Lagos-Ibadan rail project, Amaechi noted that he has challenged Messrs. China Civil Engineering and Construction Company to deploy global acceptable safety and security standards for the project. He directed that central cooling system be installed in all the major train stations along that route.

Eric Ojiekwe
Director, PPR
27th February,  2021.

Themainboy22:
Sai bubu.

naptu2:
I'm going to answer all the questions in one post.

Here is the deal.

1) Historically there are 2 rail lines that cut across Nigeria. These lines were built by the colonialists and they are the Western Line, which runs from Lagos to Kano and the Eastern Line which runs from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.Both lines meet at Kaduna.

The Western Line runs through places like Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Oshogbo, Minna, Kaduna and Kano. It was built to carry goods like (Alhassan Dantata's) groundnuts, meat, hides and skin, etc. to the port in Lagos.

The Eastern Line runs through places like Port Harcourt, Aba, Enugu, Makurdi and Maiduguri. It was initially built to carry coal from Enugu to the port at Port Harcourt.

More recently, in the 1980s, a Central Line was started. It was to run from Itakpe to Warri. This is because Nigeria had planned to become a major producer of steel and so the railway line was designed to take iron ore from the iron mines at Itakpe to the steel plant at Ajaokuta and then to take steel to the port at Warri. The line was started by the Babangida Administration in 1987, but it was never finished.


The Eastern and Western lines are narrow gauge lines. This means that trains cannot move very quickly on them. That's why we have slow trains. I read an account in a colonial officer's book about how another colonial officer made a presentation to Lord Lugard that Nigeria needed a standard gauge rail line because the narrow gauge was too slow and groundnut was being piled up in pyramids in Kano because the trains could not move them to the port in Lagos quickly enough.

The Central Line was built in the 1980s and it was the only standard gauge line in Nigeria for a long time.

The first map below shows the old narrow gauge Eastern and Western lines and the uncompleted Central Line.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12019220_nigeriarailwaymap_svg_pngc2ad80783a6f9fc203733f315b3825ed


Railway Modernisation Programme

The idea of modernising Nigeria's railway system began during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo.

Abuja Metro

Nigeria was bidding to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games and we were leading in the bid race. It seemed certain that Abuja would host the competition. Glasgow was our closest competitor. However, something happened that basically destroyed our bid.

An inspection team came to inspect the facilities that would be used for the games. We had easily passed all previous inspections because we had recently hosted the All Africa Games and the facilities were relatively new, but this team did not come to inspect our sports facilities.

The team, which was led by a woman, came to inspect our hotels and transport facilities. The team was shocked that Abuja did not have any rail or metro system. If you go to Wikipedia and search for any major stadium like Old Trafford or Yankee Stadium, you'd see the nearest train station listed in the article. That's because a metro system is the best way to move a large number of fans to and from the stadium easily. Abuja did not have that. That was the turning point and we eventually lost the bid to Glasgow.


President Obasanjo subsequently decided that a metro system must be built for Abuja. This was toward the end of his tenure and so it was not built while he was in office.


Lagos-Calabar Rail Line

For many decades people have criticised the colonialists for the way that they built the rail lines in Nigeria. The critics say that the colonialists were only interested in exploiting Nigeria's resources, that's why they built the rail lines in a north-south fashion. The lines were built to take groundnuts, coal, cocoa and other raw materials to the ports for exports. They were not built to solve the transportation needs of Nigerians and that's why the Eastern and Western lines do not meet anywhere in the south. They only meet in Kaduna. Therefore, a person that wants to go from Enugu to Lagos by rail would need to go to Kaduna first before getting to Lagos.

I have often wondered why Nigerians did not build an East-West line after the colonialists left. President Obasanjo (or his advisers) must have also had that thought and so they included a Lagos-Calabar rail line in their modernisation plan.

Eastern and Western standard gauge lines

The plan also included the construction of an Eastern and a Western standard gauge line. There was also a plan for a high speed rail line to connect Lagos and Abuja.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12019222_eh92k0wwaatz8c_jpeg84afae16d4e372984a694153b190f717

Construction

All these plans were only on paper when President Obasanjo left office. Although his government signed an agreement with the Chinese, nothing was done on the ground.

The Goodluck Jonathan Administration started the construction of the Abuja-Kaduna Rail Line (part of the Western Line) and the Abuja Metro System in 2011. The projects were finished in 2016 and commissioned by President Buhari.

Continuation

The Buhari Administration stated that it would complete the projects that it inherited before beginning new projects. The rail projects that it inherited are the Western Line (Abuja-Kaduna started by the Jonathan Administration) and the Central Line (Warri-Itakpe started by the Babangida Administration).

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12019221_2020072907_30_17_jpeg5e32039f91150c47e38b735dae81795b

The administration continued working on the Western Line by building the Lagos-Ibadan phase of the line. It had been said during the Obasanjo Administration, that Nigeria does not have the money to build all the lines at once and so they would be built in phases.

The administration also continued the work on the Central Line by actually connecting Warri to Itakpe. The line had previously been abandoned in the 1980s without getting to any of those two cities.

Complaints

The work on the Lagos-Ibadan and Warri-Itakpr lines led to a lot of complaints. People in Kano complained that they had been abandoned and that the government was only building railway lines in the south, despite the fact that they gave the government the highest number of votes. However, I heard last week that work is about to begin on the Kano-Kaduna section of the Western Line.

People in the North-East and South-East have also complained that they've been abandoned because work is only happening on the Central and Western lines. The minister of transport, Rotimi Amaechi has, in response, repeatedly promised that discussions are ongoing with the Chinese about the Eastern Line. He said that there are a few problems with getting the loan/funding for the line and also with the procurement process, but he has promised that the line would be built.

Modifications

President Buhari had also made some modifications to the projects. The Warri-Itakpe Line will now be connected to Abuja and it will become the Warri-Abuja Line. The Eastern and Western standard gauge lines will also be connected to Abuja. He has also ordered that every state capital should be connected to a rail line and that all the rail lines should terminate at a sea port.


Conclusion

In conclusion, although some people are wondering why train stations were not named after certain Nigerians, the fact is that there are still many train stations that will be built. Some people are wondering why the Eastern Line has not been built yet and the answer is that the government wants to finish building the lines that it inherited before starting new projects.

I think that the Lagos-Calabar Line will be the last to be completed because the other 3 lines are being built on already existing rail corridors, while a new corridor/right of way would have to be cleared before the Lagos-Calabar Line can be built.

Omihanifa:
There's no sense in constructing Port-harcourt Maiduguri rail line now because of the insurgency. Expect the federal government wants to use part of the money for the project to pay ransom to bandits and Boko haram.

Just some few days back, Boko haram elements went and destroyed TCN transmission line, the federal government sent some engineers there to start repair works so that electricity can be restored back to Maiduguri. Only for Boko haram boys to come back there again and do the unthinkable

So the point am making is that if they can fustrate engineers trying to repair electricity tower, then it's not advisable at this point to now start a multi billion naira rail line construction in that same region

geendi:
Eye service project,, just like 2nd niger bridge