The Minister of Transportation, Senator Saidu Ahmad Alkali has assured that the Kano to Maradi rail project will be completed at the set year of 2025.
Alkali gave the assurance on Friday in Katsina State while inspecting the project which was awarded at the cost of $2 billion by the former administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The minister who expressed satisfaction with the level of work being executed said: “The earthwork of the project has reached 80 per cent competition stage while real rail line work would soon commence after the earthworks.
“I’m impressed with what we have seen. We come all the way from Dawanau in Kano state where the project started so that we have first-hand information of the level of the execution of the project and the Contractors are in compliance with the level of specifications of the jobs”.
On whether the contractor would meet the set target of the completion of the project, the minister explained that the major work has been done and there was every tendency that they would meet the target.
On whether the original cost of the project would be readjusted to meet the current high cost of production realities, the Minister said even the contractor should make some sacrifice to contribute his quota in the fixing of Nigeria by the Tinubu-led administration.
In his remarks, the Lead Contractor, Mr. Vladislav Bystrenko, said the contract sum was $1.95 billion Dollars and that they signed contractual obligations around 2021 with the Federal Government.
He added that even before money was released to them, they had gone ahead with some major job of designing, land survey, and supervising the entire area of the contract.
Bystrenko said that the government is highly serious about completing the project as of the fixed year of 2025.
The minister also inspected the Muhammadu Buhari University of Transportation where the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Adam Umar promised to commence admission into the institution in October 2023.
