THE EASTERN RAILWAY CORRIDOR PROJECT IS NOT VIABLE. — FG

The Federal Government said on Wednesday that it will not be able to finish the narrow-gauge Eastern railway route before the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd. ), leaves office in May 2023.

This is due to the fact that the foreign financing required to support the project are no longer accessible, according to the statement.

“Now, the truth is that if there was a promise to deliver this line before the end of this administration, that promise is no longer feasible because…funding has been a major challenge for this project,” said Mu’azu Sambo, Minister of Transportation, at the end of this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The 2044.1km Port Harcourt–Maiduguri narrow gauge railway project was started in April 2022 by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.

The $3 billion initiative will connect southern and northern Nigerian states with their eastern counterparts.

The project would boost economic activity in the 14 states it passes through, according to Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation, who oversaw the start of construction. He also noted that rail tracks may be laid in the capital of Enugu State by September 2022.
The Port Harcourt–Maiduguri line, according to him, will be completed before President Buhari leaves office.

However, Sambo claimed the project had reached a financial brick wall as the funding to push its completion are not on the horizon when providing updates during the post-FEC briefing on Wednesday.

“Now, the eastern line is the route that runs from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri,” he stated. The work has been divided into two halves, with the first covering the region from Port Harcourt to Enugu.

“Now, the reality is that if there was a commitment to deliver this line before the end of this administration, that commitment is no longer realistic because the contract was granted on the basis that 85% of the finance would come from foreign loans and 15% from the national budget.

“Since that permission, we have not been able to acquire that 85 percent foreign loans for this project. We have been funding it through the national budget on the basis of the federal government’s 15% counterpart contribution. As a result, funding has been a significant difficulty for this research.”

Soon, more information…