The Federal Government has stated that the Kano to Maradi rail project will be completed at the set year of 2025.
According to The PUNCH, this was disclosed by the Minister of Transportation, Senator Saidu Ahmad Alkali, 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 percent 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”.
Regarding whether the contractor would complete the project by the deadline, the minister indicated that the most of the work had already been completed and there was a good chance they would.
When asked if the project’s initial cost would be revised to reflect the high cost of production in the current environment, the Minister responded that even the contractor would have to make some sacrifices in order to play his part in the government of Bola Tinubu’s efforts to fix Nigeria.
The lead contractor, Vladislav Bystrenko, stated in his remarks that the contract’s value was $1.95 billion and that they signed their commitments with the federal government around 2021.
He continued by saying that even before receiving payment, they had started a significant project that involved designing, conducting a land survey, and overseeing the entire contract area.
According to Mr. Vladislav Bystrenko, the administration is quite serious about finishing the project by the predetermined date of 2025.
