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2 China to help Nigeria get back on
track By Toye Olori
KAJOLA VILLAGE, Nigeria - China is
extending a hand into the Nigerian transport
sector in a deal to help the government there put
back on track the country's foundering railway
system.
China's offer of a grant and
expertise comes after the formulation of a 25-year
comprehensive railway-development plan that
includes the redesign of the existing railway
tracks and expansion of the lines to new areas
across Nigeria.
In October, the Nigerian
government signed a US$2.5 billion loan
facility with China, a
substantial part of which will be used to finance
the refurbishment of the railway system.
A
major portion of the railway-expansion project
will be carried out by China's Civil Engineering
Construction Company (CCECC), which was also
invited in 1996 by the late General Sani Abacha's
regime to revamp the railway. The regime was
widely reviled at that time over the execution of
Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni environmental
activists.
In all, an estimated 7,800
kilometers of standard-gauge railway network, to
connect all 36 state capitals and major cities in
the West African country, will be built by
concession holders, which then will be responsible
for infrastructure upgrades, expansion and
maintenance, and train operations.
The
CCECC is handling the first phase of the project,
put at $8.3 billion. Some of the phases will be
financed through private investors over a period
of time. The entire railway modernization and
expansion project is estimated to cost more than
$30 billion.
A consortium of international
and domestic private investors and banks have
already come together to offer $1.4 billion over
10 years for the development of rail
infrastructure and services, according to Nigerian
Transport Minister Habib Aliu.
The
contract for the first phase covering 1,315km of
double-track, standard-gauge (1,435-millimeter)
line from the commercial center of Lagos in the
southwest to Kano in the north - with a branch
from Minna, central Nigeria, to Abuja, the
national capital - was signed on October 30 by
Nigeria and the CCECC.
This phase of the
project, to be completed within the next four
years, was flagged off in November in the sleepy
village of Kajola in western Nigeria, some 70km
from Lagos, by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Kajola, in the Yoruba language
spoken in western Nigeria, means "let us all
prosper together". Prosperity may soon come its
way but the village may no longer know serenity,
as it is providing 48.5 hectares of land for the
first locomotive-repair workshop and shunting
yards.
The railway modernization and
expansion project will be operated and managed as
a private-sector organization and will be able to
run 36 trains per day, from Lagos to Kano and back
- and move about 40 million tons of goods per
year. Currently, the Nigerian Railway Corp (NRC)
is fully owned by the government.
Today,
goods are transported mostly by road, with
frequent damage during accidents due to the bad
state of most highways. Perishable goods such as
tomatoes and other foods, which are moved from the
north to the cities in the south, become spoiled
during the long truck trips. It takes about five
days for a cargo truck to travel from Maiduguri in
the northwest to Lagos, a distance of 1,680km.
The railway modernization is one of the
key components of the government's economic-reform
package, aimed at a 10% annual growth rate and a
13% yearly growth rate for the transport sector.
Nigeria's economic growth stands at about 2.6%,
according to figures released by the Federal
Office of Statistics for last November.
"Today's historic ground-breaking ceremony
and flag-off of the standard double-gauge rail
line from Lagos to Kano marks the first major step
in Nigeria's quest for a modern railway system to
drive and complement our economy-regeneration
efforts," said Obasanjo.
He stressed the
multiplier effect of the project on job creation,
technology development, economic improvement of
communities
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