The presidency says that the pledge to resuscitate the Eastern Rail corridor under the Muhammadu Buhari administration is no longer feasible.
The narrow-guage corridor runs from Port Harcourt through Enugu and terminates in Maiduguri, and the Buhari government had promised to revive it before May 29, 2023 when the administration lapses.
President Buhari had two years ago performed the groundbreaking of the $1.96 billion rail line project, while assuring the nation that it would stimulate economic activities in 14 States the corridor spans.
Then Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, had also assured the project would be delivered before the end of the tenure of the present administration in May next year.
Amaechi even explained earlier this year that the project was still feasible because it was cheaper to fund than the standard-gauge rail line planned for the Western Corridor that runs from Lagos through Ibadan to Birnin Kebbi.
However, Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo, announced on Wednesday that the administration would no longer fulfil that promise due to inability to secure 85% counterpart foreign loan required for the rail project.
Explaining why government is forced to renege on its promise, Sambo, while addressing the press after the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by Buhari, said: “The eastern line is the line from Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, it has been segmented in such a way that the first part of the works covers from Port Harcourt to Enugu.
“Now, the truth of the matter is that if there was a promise to deliver this line before the end of this administration, this promise is no longer feasible because, when the contract was approved, it was approved on the premise that 85 percent will be funded through foreign loan, while 15 percent will be the counterpart funding from the national budget.
“Since that approval, we have not been able to obtain that 85 percent foreign loan for this project. We have been funding it through the national budget on the basis of the 15 percent counterpart funding of the Federal Government. Therefore, funding has been a major challenge for this project.”
The States through which the rail line would have crossed are the five in the Southeast – Abia, Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi and Enugu – as well as nine others – Rivers, Nasarawa, Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi and Gombe.
