Southeast Not Marginalized in Buhari Railway Project – Federal Government

The federal government says the southeastern region of the country is not marginalized in the railway projects carried out by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Transport Minister Muazu Sambo said this Monday in Abuja while presenting his ministry's achievements at the second edition of the PMB Administration Scorecard 2015-2023 organized by the Ministry of Information and Culture .

Reacting to a question about why the South East was limited only to narrow-gauge railway lines, the Minister said that was a wrong conclusion.

Mr. Sambo said, "There is no deliberate attempt to marginalize the South East and, in fact, it is the part of the country that has benefited the most from PMB's infrastructure projects.

"The narrow gauge you are probably referring to is the one that runs from Maiduguri, down to Jos, down to Port-Harcourt.

"If this is the one you're talking about, first of all I'll let you know that Maiduguri, Jos and several other towns through which the railway lines pass are not in the southeast."< /p>

According to the minister, the second option was then the narrow-gauge contract. "This was considered by my predecessor in power, two options were available to the ministry.

"Either to rehabilitate the narrow gauge at a cost of approximately $3 billion, or to make a standard gauge at a cost of approximately $12 billion.

"We don't have the money, we're going to borrow anyway. So we figured whatever the standard gauge would give us, the narrow gauge would give us too."

Mr. Sambo added that looking at the advantages and disadvantages of the corridor, the narrow gauge will carry more cargo.

He added that the only fundamental difference between narrow gauge and standard gauge was speed.

Justifying his position that the South East region has benefited the most, the minister said it was Mr Buhari's administration that built the second bridge over the Niger that defied all governments previous.

He said the bridge would be inaugurated by the president before the end of the year.

(NAN)

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