FG’ll restore Abuja-Kaduna train tracks in 10 days

Minister of Transportation, Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali

The Minister of Transport, Sa’idu Alkali, has confirmed that all things being equal, the suspended Abuja-Kaduna train line would be restored in the next 10 days.

The minister, who gave the assurance during an on-the-spot inspection of the ongoing clearing of the accident scene yesterday after the derailment of the train on August 26, said work was progressing well.

He said: “As you can see during my tour, what is affected by the accident is about 150 meters. So, it’s not too long. We will be able to fix the sleepers, the pallets and the rail track so that we will be back to operation. It is a cardinal responsibility of the government to provide welfare for its citizens.

“We are trying to fix the infrastructure so that we have a bigger crane to move the coaches and all the locomotives that are on the site. By the grace of God, in the next 48 hours, we will be able to move all of them out of the site. And after that, if we didn’t have any weather challenge, in the next 10 days, we are going to restore the line.”

Alkali disclosed that at the time the accident occurred, the locomotive was carrying eight coaches. We have successfully moved four out of the place, as you can see.

He, however, praised the security and other stakeholders for their efforts to ensure the safety of passengers, workers and train facilities in the ongoing operations to restore the damaged tracks and coaches.

He also stated that the staff of the Nigerian Railway Corporation have been working day and night to ensure that the clearing and repairing of the damaged tracks are done at the earliest possible time.

He said: “Let me start by thanking Mr. President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for his support since the incident happened. He has given us support to ensure that we move the locomotive and the coaches and fix the rail line so that we will be back into operation.”