LAGOS - Nigeria and China signed a 8.3 billion dollar contract for the
construction of a railway line from the nation's economic capital Lagos to Kano,
the largest commercial city in the north, the official News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) reported.
The deal signed in Abuja was in two tranches, including the main contract
covering the first phase of the railway modernisation project to be concluded in
five years by a Chinese firm, the CCECC, and an Italian consultancy firm, NAN
said
NAN did not give the name of the Italian firm.
The accord, signed by the deputy transport minister, Muhammad Aliyu, the
president of the CCECC, Lin Rongxin, and officials of the Italian consultancy
firm, was witnessed by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obasanjo said the rail modernisation project was part of an integrated
transportation system for the country covering land, air and maritime transport.
Obasanjo said the construction of the new standard gauge track north-south
line was only the first phase of a modernisation programme that would cover two
major longitudinal lines, he said.
The second would link the southern oil city of Port Harcourt and the central
city of Jos and five latitudinal lines that would also link all the 36 state
capitals in Nigeria, he said.
Under the 20-year strategic plan for the modernisation of the transport
sector, about 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) of standard rail line would be
constructed with the first phase covering 1,315 kilometres.
The Chinese recently granted Nigeria a 2.5 billion dollar loan facility of
which a substantial amount would be used on the rail project.
Obasanjo also charged the Chinese company to look ahead by projecting
possible rail links with neighbouring Benin, Niger and Chad, NAN added.
Lin said the rail contract was the biggest ever in the history of the
country, and that of Nigeria/China ties, adding that the project was "a design,
construct and maintain project".
He said that about 50,000 Nigerians would be employed during the construction
of the rail line.
