Full train service from Lagos to Kano will resume in December, Mr Adeseyi Sijuwade, the Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation, said on Friday.
He stated this while on a demonstration ride on the recently rehabilitated track from Zungeru to Akerre on Thursday.
The ride is part of the current tour of federal projects.
He said that the rehabilitation work on the bridge linking Akerre and Minna would be completed in early November.
“The most difficult aspect of the work is the one that has been completed and I can confidently tell you that the north and the south will be once again linked by rail come December,” Sijuwade said.
He stated that with the completion of Bridge 47 at Akerre, which was flooded more than three years ago, the rail line from Lagos to Kano was near completion.
On the economic implication of the rail resuscitation project, he said the farming communities along the lines were already preparing to reap from the gains of the projects.
He said that the lives of the people in the areas where the lines passed would be transformed.
In his remark, the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, said the resumption of services between Jebba and Akerre through Zungeru was a true testimony that the rail revival project was real.
Other stakeholders on the ride to Zungeru, described it as an eye-opener and urged the Federal Government to acquire modern coaches to incorporate all segments of the society.
The President of Radio And TelevisionTheartre Arts Workers Union, Mr. Yemisi Bamgboye, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the project was commendable.
An elder in Akerre community, Alhaji Baba Abdullahi, said that the completion of the project would transform the economy of the community.
He appealed to the government not to relent on its efforts to revive the railway.
