Kano To Host Nigeria’s Biggest Rail Station– Amaechi

Abiola Seun

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

The Minister said this when a delegation from Kano, led by Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje, visited him in Abuja to discuss the rail and Dala inland dry port in the State.

“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 Nigeria.

“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.”

According to the minister, there will be expansion in the concept of the Kano station which is largely the same framework as the Lagos station but has more space.

He said the visit of the Kano delegation was also to delebrate on the Dala inland dry port which was already at an advanced stage.

Amaechi said that the ministry’s delegation would, on March 5, visit the site to ascertain the level of work and how the ministry could support realisation of the project.

In his remarks, 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 20years ago but never materialised until during our time.

“So I want to make sure that this project is a reality and, in order to do that, we have to provide enabling environment, 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 assistance to see that the Kano State Dala inland dry port is a reality.”

Ganduje said that the project would lead to economic development for Kano and its neighbouring States as well as for Niger Republic, Cameron and Chad, among others