Nigerian rail service

The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi has said that the Federal Government will re-connect the country’s railway with the sea ports in a bid to boost economic activities.

Amaechi said this during a meeting he had with port professionals on Monday in Lagos.

The minister said President Muhamadu Buhari’s resolve to diversify the economy had brought to the front burner the need to implement the inter-modal means of transportation in the country.

“We expect that before June or July, we should begin the process or we should start the construction of the Lagos-Kano, and possibly the Lagos-Calabar railway.

Amaechi, in white, inspecting one of the railway projects

“If those two contracts commence, then we expect that they would generate employment (and) economic activity would improve.

“And we say that all of these must terminate at the sea ports, so anybody can import from any particular place in time.

“You can import from Warri Sea Port; you can import from Port Harcourt sea port; you can import or export from Calabar sea port or any of the sea ports.

“In terminating the railway, we are going to terminate one at Apapa and another one at Tin Can to encourage inter-modal means of transportation.’’

The minister gave the assurance that appropriate measures would be taken to ensure that the country received the right amount of revenue from the system.

“We also want to know how much is coming in and how much is being spent.’’

“Nobody is expected to spend more than the budget has been approved for you so that we save money for the economy.’’

Amaechi, therefore, urged Nigerians to be patient with the Federal Government as its works assiduously to revive the economy, beginning with the implementation of the 2016 budget.