The Minister of Transportation, Said Alkali, has assured that the damaged portions of the Abuja-Kaduna rail line will be repaired within 10 days. Alkali gave the assurance on Monday in Abuja while addressing journalists after inspecting the site of the recent train derailment.
The derailment, which occurred last Tuesday near Asham Station, left sections of the tracks damaged and destroyed some coaches on a Kaduna-bound train. He explained that workers of the Nigerian Railway Corporation had been working round the clock to clear the wreckage and repair the affected tracks.
The minister commended security agencies and other stakeholders for their roles in safeguarding passengers, workers and train facilities at the site. “I thank President Bola Tinubu for his support since the incident occurred in ensuring that we move the locomotive and the coaches and fixed the rail line in order to restart operation. From what I have seen, I also want to commend the Managing Director of the NRC and his team, because they are on the site day and night trying to restore normalcy after the incident,” he said.
Alkali noted that his team had conducted investigations at the site but stressed that he could not pre-empt the outcome. “I am here with the full team from the Ministry of Transportation, Director of Railway and all his engineers and even the committee doing the investigation. The CCECC are here, Civil Rights Organisation, all of us are here to ensure we do justice to the investigations,” he stated.
He revealed that the eight affected coaches would be evacuated within the next two days, adding that the section of the track damaged by the derailment measured about 150 meters. “So it’s not something too long. We will be able to fix the sleepers, the pallets and the rail track so that we will be back to operation,” he explained.
The minister further assured that government teams were working to prevent a repeat of such an incident. “It is a cardinal responsibility of government to provide welfare for its citizens. The teams are doing their best to ensure similar occurrence does not happen again. However, it is the outcome of the investigations that will now reveal what actually happened. Then we look at it and ensure it doesn’t happen again by the grace of God Almighty,” he said.
