oost economic growth
of a quarry at Ishiagu in Ebonyi State, which is supplying ballast for Lot 1, has hampered progress on the project. However, the government remains optimistic that it will be completed by the end of the year. During visits to the construction sites by transport minister Mr Idris A Umar and leading NRC officials in April, Umar said that he would liaise with the governor of Ebonyi to end the siege and increase police presence around the construction sites to deter thieves. He also said that NRC is in the process of ordering wagons and dmus to operate on the line. Other projects for which construction contracts have been awarded include the new 340km Itakpe - Ajaokuta - Warri standard-gauge line which will transport iron-ore from the Itakpe mine to the Ajaokuta and Delta Steel plants, and coal from Warri to Ajaokuta. The line will have capacity for four trains of 32 wagons in its first phase and eventually increase to eight trains of 64 wagons. The government is hopeful that chosen contractor Julius Berger, which is carrying out the work under a $US 211m contract awarded in 2009, will complete the work this year, although the steel plants are not currently in production. In addition to its work on the Lagos - Kano project,
CCECC also secured a $US 1.59bn contract for the 360km, standard-gauge Lagos - Ibadan line in 2012. The double- track line is being financed through a $US 1bn soft loan from China Exim Bank with up to $US 500m provided by the Nigerian government. A similar loan agreement is in place with China Exim bank for the 186km Abuja - Kaduna single-track standard-gauge line. China Exim will provide $US 500m towards the $US 875m project, with CCECC again contracted to carry out this work under a deal signed in 2009. Construction began in Nigeria’s capital on April 3.
The government clearly considers rail
rehabilitation as crucial to the country’s economic development hence the very public appearance of President Goodluck Jonathan on the inaugural Lagos - Abeokula service, which some local media reports have cited as one of the true success stories of his administration.
Indeed, the federal government’s August 2010 draft National Transport Policy cited rail as “the most cost- effective, affordable, energy-saving and
environmental form of transportation.” It envisaged significant benefits stemming from the movement of large numbers of inter-city passengers and high volumes of containerised or bulk freight such as oil, coal, steel or agricultural produce, and structured its subsequent 25-year Railway Strategic Vision into three phases: system transition, system modernisation, and system stabilisation. To realise these benefits, rail development must overcome a range of structural, practical and legal challenges. The scale and complexity of the task includes the need to redesign a network that still reflects its colonial origin and purpose to transport goods from the hinterland to ports for shipping to Europe. Nigeria’s rail advocates argue for a system capable of becoming a flexible and competitive component of the country’s internal transport network. However, there is ample scope for debate, not least to determine the
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