17 Aug 2009
Following the much call for a total reactivation of Nigeria’s railway lines in the country, the federal government has agreed to meet with the railway experts from the United States of America on her railway lines rehabilitation.

Already, a team of railway construction experts from the US is presently in Nigeria to work out modalities that would assist the country to rehabilitate existing railway lines across the country, rather than embarking on new construction.

Experts in the field are of the view that the development would among others, go a long way in helping the Federal Government to reposition the railway system and reduce carnage on the roads.

The team was led to the Ilorin Terminus over the weekend by Mr. Jim Blaze, as part of effort to appraise the viability of the North Central Zone. The group has started the evaluation from Lagos axis and had visited Oyo and Ogun states in the South-West Nigeria.

Mr. Blaze after the tour of Ilorin terminus, said their mission in Nigeria was to determine estimate of materials needed to make the Nigerian Railway System work again. He said report of the assessment have been presented to the New Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation for onward submission to the federal government.

He said, "This report was submitted to the MD NRC’s desk hopefully, and he is expected to have some serious discussions with Nigeria’s political leaders on what should be done. The federal government will determine how fast we will move."

It has also been reported that the team who undertook the appraisal exercise of the rail system had so far shown that there are no supporting structures which is a prerequisite for a safe rail system. The group however said that how far the project would go would be determined by the Nigerian government.

The US team further assures that though the rails and tiles in the first 20 to 28 kilometers from Lagos to Abeokuta will be replaced completely because they are old, fatigued and fractured yet the entire rehabilitation would not be expensive to complete.

Although the team refused to mention the cost of the rehabilitation, the leader of the team, however, said, "I am not sure I want to tell you, because even a normal engineering contract could have a 30 to 40 per cent contingency fee, so the number I have in my head should really not be made public, because it might raise false expectations, but we are not talking about billions of dollars."