f5a0831d37295978ab7ed422cb66e315.jpg (Photo : www.informationng.com)
The rail line connecting Kaduna and Abuja was finally constructed, with Nigerian Transport Minister Idris Audu tightening the last bolt symbolically on Monday.
The contractor for the project was the China Railway Construction Corporation, who won the railway contract with Nigeria worth $12 billion in November.
The rail line is slated to be operational next year and is just the first step to a much larger program of modernizing African rail lines with technology from China.
Cao Baogang, vice chairman of China-Africa Construction Ltd., said that the recently finished railway is considered to be a successful export of railway technologies from China.
The vice chairman of the CRCC subsidiary also said that the $300-million contract, which saw exports of Chinese locomotives, construction materials and railway equipment, has boosted Nigeria's economy.
Worth $8.3 billion, the modernization project for railways in Nigeria extends 1,315 kilometers starting from Lagos in the country's south to Kano in the north.
The Abuja-Kaduna rail line, which is part of the Lagos-Kano line, spans 186.5 kilometers with nine rail stations and two terminals. The railway was being constructed since Feb. 19, 2013. Trains in the section can run up to 150 kilometers per hour.
Zhang Zongyan, the president of CRCC, said that the new railway and the Nigerian Coastline Railway program is currently the biggest foreign project of China. It is also a significant part of the railway plan of Nigeria and is one of the major connectivity enhancement programs of the Economic Community of West African States.
