Abuja Light Rail Project 'on track for 2013 deadline'

19 October 2009

The priority status of the Abuja Light Rail Project and its 2013 deadline for completion has been reiterated by the minister of the federal capital territory senator Muhammed Adamu Aliero.

After experiencing funding difficulties that impeded a 2008 start date, the plan is back on track - with Mr Aliero being quoted by Leadership Nigeria as calling the new completion time limit "sacrosanct".

"We have already started making preparations for adequate funding towards 2010," the senator noted, going on to say the $840 million (£512 million) project was a "dear" one.

Training and technology transfer from the Chinese firm charged with completing the railway would also be of utmost importance, Mr Aliero added.

Back in 2007, newspaper This Day quoted the federal capital territory minister Mallam Nasir el-Rufai as saying this project was necessary because of the strain on infrastructure occasioned by burgeoning population growth.

"In accordance with globally accepted norms, cities with [more than] 1.5 million people should have an integrated public transportation system," he noted.

Category: Transport