President Muhammed Buhari will on July 26 inaugurate Abuja–Kaduna rail project, marking an end to the test running phase which has been ongoing for about a month to ascertain the readiness of the project for public usage.
Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja while receiving the Ministerial Committee report on NIMASA Restructuring and Reformation.
He stated that, “the president has approved July 26 as the date for the inauguration” adding that, “from that day on passengers will have to pay money before boarding to go to Kaduna from Abuja or come to Abuja from Kaduna by rail.”
It will be recalled that the minister said some weeks ago that government would purchase more locomotives and coaches to accommodate the large turnout of passengers patronising Abuja-Kaduna rail route.
He revealed that the number of passengers boarding Abuja-Kaduna rail are more than the capacity of the coaches.
According to him, “currently from what we have seen, the number of passengers boarding the rail outnumber the number of coaches available. We have about four coaches that have the capacity to carry about 380 persons, but right now, more than 380 persons have been boarding those coaches,” Amaechi revealed.
“Since we hit the ground running, people are boarding to go to Kaduna free in the test running of the project. We will start collecting money the day President Muhammadu Buari inaugurates the project,” he concluded.
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