China is to build the 1,400-km-long Lagos-Kano Railway, the
first standard railway in Nigeria, a spokesman for the Nigerian
Railway Corporation (NRC) said in Lagos on Monday.
The construction of the double-track line would involve a total
investment of US$8.3 billion, NRC spokesman David Ndakotsu told
reporters in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos.
To pave way for the new line, he said, "The NRC management has
set up monitoring units in its seven districts to identify and
demolish structures in areas proposed for the new standard
rail."
Ndakotsu said masts erected by public utility companies and
private organizations on the corridors of the proposed standard
gauge would be demolished.
He added that such organizations had been served a month's
notice to relocate such facilities.
"The NRC is hopeful that companies such as the Power Holding
Company of Nigeria, the Nigerian Telecommunication Corporation
(NITEL) and private telephone operators who have erected masts,
cables and pylons on the rail lines will comply with the
directive," he said.
Ndakotsu expressed satisfaction with the level of support the
corporation had received from the governments of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun,
Kaduna and Kano states on the Lagos-Kano railway project that will
traverse these states.
The spokesman said these states had initiated moves to reclaim
for the NRC its abused properties and also set up task forces to
dislodge illegal structures and trespassers within the proposed
rail corridors.
(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2006)
