The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the award of contracts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri eastern narrow gauge railway, with new branch lines and trans-shipment facilities.
The railway line will cost $3,020,279,549; and the decision was reached at today’s FEC meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
The Council also approved the construction of a new deep seaport in Bonny, Rivers State under a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) at a cost of $461,924,369.
A further construction of a railway Industrial park in the State capital, Port Harcourt, also under PPP, at no cost to federal government, will cost $241,154,389.31.
The Port Harcourt to Maiduguri narrow gauge railway will have new branch lines from Port Harcourt to Bonny and from Port Harcourt to Owerri are new lines.
There will be another branch line connecting the narrow gauge to standard gauge at Kafanchan, Kaduna State.
There will be a branch line from Gombe, or before Maiduguri, to Damaturu and Gashua in Yobe State.
The approvals come in the heels of outrage that trailed an earlier one for the construction of a rail line from Kano to Maradi in Nigeria Republic, at a time rail lines in several parts of Nigeria were not yet rehabilitated.
