Abuja — The Minister of Transport, Diezani Allison Madueke, recently announced while receiving a Chinese delegation in her office that Nigeria has concluded plans aimed at the modernization and revitalisation of Nigeria's railway system.
Certainly, any attempt at improving the railways and making it take its place in the transportation system in Nigeria is welcome. For far too many times, lip service has been paid to bringing it back to its former glory, sometimes at great cost. One of such is the $8.3 billion agreement reached between the immediate past administration and a Chinese firm named Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Corporation [CCECC] to design, construct and maintain the 1,315 km double-standard gauge-rail from Lagos to Kano. The pro ject is now embroilled in allegation of it being inflated from $5 billion to $8.3 billion.
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