By LUCY OGALUE

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, says Kano State will house the biggest rail station in the country.

Amaechi stated this 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.

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 Kano State Government to give us land to build the biggest station in Nigerian. It is the biggest station because we are combining two rail lines.

“The first is the Kano-Maradi, which will empty in Kano and then the second one is Kano –Kaduna, which will also 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.

According to the minister, 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.

“We are investing about N2.5billion, we are providing access road, we are providing also other social amenities just to contribute our own quota.

“That project was conceived 20 years ago but never materialised until during our time.

“So, I make sure that this project is a reality and in order to do that we have to provide enabling environment to contribute our own quota.

“So, we are happy with the developers because they have gone far and we are happy with the honourable minister of transportation because he has given maximum cooperation in assisting to see that the Kano State Dala IDP is a reality,” Ganduje said.

The governor noted that the project would lead to economic development not only for Kano and its neighbouring states but for Niger, Cameron and Chad among others.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, Dala IDP, Abubakar Bawuro, said everything had been put in place to ensure the speedy completion, viability and use of the dry port.

The chairman said the project, which would be ready anytime soon, would further boost business relations between Nigeria and the Niger Republic.

Bawuro said that extensive work had been accomplished in key areas of the ports, including the stacking area of the sea ports containers, the warehouse, the administrative block, electricity supply and the access roads network.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that over N5billion has been sunk so far to realise the Dala Inland Dryport. (NAN)

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