Minister of Transportation in Nigeria, Rotimi Amaechi, has revealed that Kano State will house the biggest rail station in the country because plans are in place to ensure that it combines two rail lines.
Amaechi made this revelation when a delegation from Kano State, led by Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje, visited him in Abuja to discuss the rail and Inland Dry Port (IDP) in the State on Tuesday.
The minister said, ‘We have two major projects we want to do in Kano, the first being the standard gauge from Kano to Kaduna.
‘We are applying to the Kano State Government to give us land to build the biggest station in Nigeria. It is the biggest station because we are combining two rail lines.
‘The first is the Kano-Maradi, which will be empty in Kano and then the second one is Kano –Kaduna, which will also be empty in Kano.
‘Don’t forget the station we are building in Kano will be the station that will take passengers from Lagos to Kano.
‘If you combine Kano-Maradi and Lagos-Kano, you will know that the volume of passengers you will get in a week will be about a million passengers,’ Amaechi said.
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The minister further revealed that there will be an expansion in the concept of the Kano Station, which is largely the same framework as the Lagos Station but has more space than the Lagos Station.
He noted that the visit of the Kano delegation was also an opportunity to deliberate on the Dala IDP, which was already at the advanced stage.
He said the ministry’s delegation would on March 5, visit the site to ascertain the level of work and how further the ministry could support realisation of the project.
Earlier, Ganduje said that the state government had contributed about N2.5billion to the dry port project to ensure its speedy completion and commercialisation.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK