?By GABRIEL AGBEJA

?The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Said Alkali, has said that the damaged portions of the Abuja – Kaduna rail tracks will be fixed within the next 10 days.

?Alkali said this on Monday in Abuja while addressing newsmen after inspecting ongoing development at the site of the train derailment.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some portions of the rail tracks and coaches were destroyed last Tuesday after a Kaduna-bound train derailed by Asham Station.

According to him, the staff of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) have been working day and night to ensure that the clearing and repairing of the damaged tracks are done at the earliest possible time.

He commended security agencies and other stakeholders for their efforts in ensuring the safety of passengers, workers and train facilities at the site.

“I thank President Bola Tinubu for his support since the incident occurred in ensuring that we move the locomotive and the coaches and fixed the rail line in order to restart operation.

?”From what I have seen, I also want to commend the Managing Director of the NRC and his team, because they are on the site day and night trying to restore normalcy after the incident,” he said.

The minister who said his team had done justice to the investigation, however explained that he was not in a position to pre-empt the investigation.

“I am here with the full team from the Ministry of Transportation, Director of Railway, and all his engineers and even the committee doing the investigation

“The CCECC are here, Civil Rights Organization, all of us are here to ensure we do justice to the investigations.

Alkali who said that the affected eight coaches would be moved out of the site within the next two days, added that the path of the track that was affected by the accident was about 150 meters.

?“So it’s not something too long. We will be able to fix the sleepers, the pallets and the rail track so that we will be back to operation.

“It is a cardinal responsibility of government to provide welfare for its citizens. The teams are doing their best to ensure similar occurrence does not happen again.

“However, it is the outcome of the investigations that will now reveal what actually happened. Then we look at it and ensure it doesn’t happen again by the grace of God Almighty,” he said. (NAN)

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