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Igbo Fumes, Blasts Amaechi Over Approval Of Narrow Guage Rail Project For East
An Igbo sociopolitical organization, the World Igbo Peoples Assembly, (WIPAS), has expressed dissatisfaction with approval of the narrow Gauge Rail for the eastern corridor.
The group rejected the project, which is expected to link Port Harcourt to Maiduguri by rail, saying it amounts to continued marginalisation of the igbo tribe.
The Igbo group lampooned the Minister for Transportation, Rt Hon Rotimi Amaechi, for consenting to the execution of the project it described as sham in his region.
Ekohotblog recalls that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the award of contracts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri eastern narrow-gauge railway, with new branch lines and trans-shipment facilities.
The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, had made this known when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the 18th virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council, revealing that the Council approved the construction of a new deep seaport in Bonny, under the Private-Public- Partnership (PPP) programme and the construction of an Industrial railway park in Port Harcourt.
But in a press release signed by its Board of Trustee Chairman, Chuks Ibegbu on Sunday, WIPAS wondered why the rail line from North to West will be standard guage and the one from East to North will be narrow guage.
The release read “the rail line from the West to the North should be standard gauge and that from the East be narrow gauge”.
The statement said ”the federal government is building a standard rail gauge line from Daura to Maradi in the Niger Republic and Rotimi Amaechi allowed this insult on his people”.
WIPAS called for an immediate review of the project and warned against the continuation of the project until the wrong is rectified.
The narrow guage is an old and relatively slow rail line which is no longer in use in many parts of the world and is being phased out across the country in line with the comprehensive rejuvenation of the rail transport system in the country.
Engineers have raised concerns over the project, saying it will disrupt the uniformity of standard guage rail project which is being constructed across the country, noting that it’s not feasible to have to standard guage and narrow guage run on the same tracks.
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