All the 36 states of the federation will be connected by rail in the ongoing railway projects, Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has said.
He said the resolve followed the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to that effect.
Amaechi made this known on Thursday at the meeting with the Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Shehu Sani.
The meeting also attended by the Ministers of Finance; Budget and National Planning; and Power, Works and Housing was in connection with President Buhari’s loan request of 5.5 billion dollars.
Amaechi said that the central rail line project connecting several communities of northern and southern Nigeria would be completed in June, next year.
He disclosed that 17 coaches would arrive the country next month and 10 would be deployed to Abuja-Kaduna rail line,
The remaining seven, he said, would be deployed to the Itakpe-Warri rail line.
He said the money the Presidency sought the approval of the Senate for would partly be used execute the rail projects covering Kano-Kaduna, and Lagos-Ibadan networks.
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Meanwhile, Senator Sani had earlier advised Nigeria to be responsible it its borrowing.
His words: “The committee has the mandate to examine the merits and otherwise of the current loan request of 5.5 billion dollars of the president.
“If we must bequeath to the future generation a pile of debt, it must be justified with commensurate infrastructural proof of the value of the debt.
“The payment plan of this debt will undoubtedly last the length of our lifetimes and possibly beyond.
“We must leave behind a legacy that will appease and answer the questions the next generation of Nigerians will ask.”
Also speaking on the loan request, the Director-General, Debt Management Office, Mrs. Patience Oniha, explained that the loans had sustainable benefits that would live beyond the present generation of Nigerians.
“What we should take away is that we are going into projects whose benefits don’t go away.
“The roads don’t go away, the schools don’t go away, and the hospitals don’t go away but all that we need to do is to maintain them properly and that is the explanation I want to make on that,” she said.
