Senate demands viability study on rail project

*As Amaechi debunks exclusion of S’East corridor
The Senate committee on external debts has demanded the viability study of the entire concessioning of programme of some of the rail racks.

The chairman of the committee, Senator Shehu Sani, said this on Thursday in Abuja, during a committee hearing on the exclusion of the eastern corridor in the proposed national loan to be borrowed from China Exim Bank to finance the upgrading of the Nigerian rail system from lower gauge to standard gauge by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Part of the committee’s request includes the reason for a full transport university, in addition to over 120 federal, state and private institutions. It demanded that transportation ministry should advocate for the upgrading of engineering departments of existing universities to serve the purpose.

It is also expected to ensure standardization in the entire projects.

A member of the committee, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdulahi (Niger state), who is also chairman, Senate committee on Media and Communication, was also quick to query the need for the additional engineering university since other ones are still substandard.

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who earlier raised the alarm on the exclusion of the eastern corridor in the proposed project to be executed from the Chinese loan, demanded explanations in clear terms since the proposal before the Senate, was to borrow to upgrade the rail tracks in other parts of the country and to concession that of the eastern corridor.

The committee also sought explanation over the rationale behind seeking for expertise from China in maintaining the facilities in the long run instead of equipping Nigerians to be in charge. It rather suggested for the upgrading and retraining of manpower in the Nigerian Railway Corporation as an empowerment and to enshrine the culture in Nigeria.

Senator Abaribe then asked Amaechi thus, “We want you to tell Nigerians the reason why the Nigeria Railway corporation, which a Nigeria heads, should seek expertise from China instead of developing our own manpower.”
However, responding to the allegations by the Senator Sani-led committee, the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, stated that “the administration had taken steps to incorporate the South East corridor and indeed the North East corridor that was not provided for at all by the previous administrations in 2006 and 2014 rail projects development.”

Amaechi, however, remarked that the development has necessitated the sourcing for financial options to which the Federal Ministry of Finance has been directed by President Buhari to take appropriate action.