The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, said the Federal Government has approved the construction for Warri seaport at the cost of about $3.9bn and also awarded the contract for the Abuja-Warri rail line.

Amaechi told the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja that government also approved the linking of Abuja to Itakpe, Itakpe-Warri, then from Warri rail to the seaport.

“The President awarded the contract for Abuja to Warri, Abuja to Itakpe, then to Warri. From the Warri rail to the seaport. We are building a new seaport in Warri, the cabinet approved it last week, that is about $3.9bn,” he said.

He, however, said that about $45bn was needed to complete rail development in the country.

He said that once Lagos-Kano, Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, Lagos-Calabar and Abuja-Warri rail lines were constructed, the rail would have covered the country.

According to him, the government has not spent over $3bn so far on all the ongoing projects.

The Lagos-Ibadan will cost about $1.6bn, that doesn’t include the extra cost of things we didn’t prepare for or see in the evaluation; Abuja-Kaduna was constructed with about $1bn.

“We also paid $500m to buy locomotives and rolling stocks for Lagos-Ibadan; I can’t remember how much we spent buying rolling stocks for Kaduna-Abuja.”

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