Eastern axis line: Withdrawal of GE won’t stop project – Ameachi

The Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Ameachi, has disclosed that the withdrawal of General Electric will not stop the construction of standard gauge of rail lines from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.
The Minister, who appeared before the Joint Senate Committee on Foreign Loan and Land Transport, explained that there was no plan to exclude the region from the rail project.
Amaechi assured the committee that the area is already captured in the 2018 borrowing plans of the Federal Government.
Informing the Committee, the Minister said: “We have met with both GE and the consortium handling the project for nearly two years now and we are still on it even as the first firm as handed over to TRANSNET, meaning Transport Network.
“Let me make it clear: the country does not have the resources to do railway in every village.
“It is not possible.
“$2.7 billion is N1 trillion.”
“So, for the railway you want to do from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri is about $12 .8 billion, which is about N9 trillion, equivalent to  one year budget of Nigeria.
“Therefore, everything is done systematically.
“We can’t do all the projects at the same time.
“What we are doing is as we get the loan approved, we execute the project.
“Currently, we are following due process for the one of South East.
“Currently we have placed an advertisement on the Eastern Rail lines.
“Sometime in 2017, we placed an advertisement for rail from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri and that is what the law expects us to do.
“We can’t skip the law on construction of standard gauge.
“Again, even the narrow gauge construction does not only concern the the South East.
“The same narrow gauge transversed Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.
“I don’t know what other thing the Senate expects from me on this project except to say that it is work in progress.
“We are not magicians and the current law we have insists on the number of times we shall advertise a project.
“We complete the process, we pass it to Bureau for Public Procurement, which in turn will be referred to us before we go to the cabinet for presentation and I think we are set to go to the cabinet for approval.”