Published By Seyi Babalola
Kano State may get the biggest railway station in the country, the Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi has said.
The Minister who disclosed this, while playing host to a Kano State delegation, led by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who paid him a visit in his office.
The delegation had come to discuss the rail development and the Dala Inland Dry Port.
Amaechi said: “We have two major projects we want to do in Kano; these are the standard gauge from Kano to Kaduna and the Ibadan to Kano standard gauge rail line. That is why we are applying to the Kano State Government to give us land to build the biggest station in Nigeria. It is the biggest station because it would contain activities of two rail lines.
He said the Ministry projected over a million passenger traffic on the Kano-Kaduna line alone, making it one of the busiest corridors in the country. Amaechi said the state would serve as a transit point for Lagos-Kano bound passengers.
“The Kano Station will take passengers from Lagos-Kano. If you combine Kano-Maradi and Lagos-Kano, you would know that the volume of passengers in a week will be about a million.”
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 will have more space.
Amaechi said the powerful delegation from Kano also came to deliberate on the Dala Inland Dry Port which was already at an advanced stage.
He said a delegation from the Ministry of Transportation would visit the site on March 5, to ascertain the level of work and how the ministry could support realization of the project.
Ganduje in his remarks said the Kano State Government had contributed about N2.5 billion to the dry port project to ensure its speedy completion. “We areinvesting about N2.5 billion, we are providing also other social amenities just to contribute our quota. That project was conceived 20 years ago but never materialsed till today and that is why we are determined that it becomes reality in our lifetime. We are happy with the developers because they have gone far and we are happy with the Minister of Transportation because he has given maximum cooperation in assistance to see that the Kano tate Dala Inland Dry Port is a reality.”
