Buhari to flag-off $2b Kano-Maradi, Kano-Dutse rail line on Tuesday

The Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has announced that President Muhammadu Buhari, will on Tuesday, February 9, 2021, perform the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kano-Maradi, Kano-Dutse Railway Project.

This follows the approval of about $2 billion by the Federal Executive Council in September 2020, for the rail line and the subsequent signing of the contract documents for the commencement of the project last month.

This was disclosed by the Transportation Minister, in a tweet post on his official Twitter handle on Friday, February 5, 2021.

The railway project is expected to connect three Nigerian Northern states namely Kano, Katsina and Jigawa and then terminate at Maradi, Niger Republic.

Amaechi in his tweet post said, "We are pleased to announce the groundbreaking of the Kano-Maradi, Kano-Dutse Railway Project, slated for Tuesday, our President, Muhammadu Buhari will do the honours. Work begins."

It can be recalled that the Federal Government had about three weeks ago, during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with Mota-Engil Group, the contractors to the project, disclosed that the Kano-Maradi railway project would be completed within 36 months.

The rail line is expected to financially empower Nigeria as the import/export hub for Niger and would help the country compete favourably with other coastal countries of West Africa in servicing the landlocked countries around in the area of movement of cargoes to make Lagos seaports very viable.