Don Wants FG To Implement Railway Projects

A university lecturer, Dr. John Udeh has called on the Federal Government to ensure that the proposed seven new rail way projects captured in the 2019 budget are implemented when passed into law by the National Assembly.
Dr. Udeh who is a lecturer at the National Open University, gave the charge on Monday during an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt.
He commended the federal government initiative to develop the railway transportation system as an alternative to road transportation inadequacies experienced in recent times.
According to him, the federal government had proposed N80 billion for seven railway projects across the country and the money was billed to serve as counterparts funds for ongoing and new railway projects recently approved by the Buhari’s administration. The N80 billion, he continued was contained in the 2019 budget proposal presented to the National Assembly by the president, and if the budget is approved on time and the counterpart fund paid to the contractor, China Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC), there are indications that the projects might commence this year.
He decried the situation where an amount for a certain project would be projected in a proposed budget and when passed into law the funds would be diverted to other use, rather than using it for the project which the funds were allocated to.
Dr. Udeh lamented that the non implementation of budgets in the past and present administration, had been the major cause of under development in the country, stressing that the seven proposed new railway projects would not be visible if this misappropriation of funds were not addressed.
It would be recalled that the Federal Executive Council in 2017 approved the new railway projects including the Kano-Katshina-Jibiya-Maradi which passes through Daura, the president’s home town in Katsina State.
The project cost about $16 billion.
Other projects include Lagos – Kano, Calabar-Lagos, Ajaokuta-Itakpe-Aladja-Warri, Port Harcourt – Maiduguri, Abuja-Itakpe and Aladja- Warri Port and refinery including Warri new Harbour and Bonny Deep Sea Port and Port Harcourt among other rail projects.