Lagos, Nigeria, January 6, 2024: China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), the contractor responsible for laying tracks on the Eastern Narrow Railway project, announced the completion of track laying on the Port Harcourt to Aba section. The disclosure came through an official statement published on the CCECC website on Wednesday.
“The tracks laying from Port Harcourt to Aba on the Nigeria Eastern Narrow-Gauge Railway project have been completed,” the statement confirmed. Fidet Okhiria, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), reiterated this progress during an end-of-year interactive session held in Lagos, assuring that the tracks laying from Port Harcourt to Aba on the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri corridor would be finalized within the next 15 days.
The Eastern Narrow-Gauge Railway holds strategic significance as a key component of the national railway network, aiming to enhance connectivity between local railways, ports, and cities. The ongoing track laying on the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri Railway corridor is poised to significantly contribute to the economic and social development of the country upon its completion.
The reconstruction of the Eastern Narrow Railway commenced in 2022, as announced by the then Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi. On March 10, 2021, the federal government entered into an agreement with a consortium of Chinese financiers to initiate the $3 billion rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Eastern Railway project.
Under the agreement, the government is responsible for providing 15 percent of the rehabilitation and reconstruction cost, with the remaining funds being sourced from the Chinese syndicate. However, in September 2023, the immediate past transport minister, Saidu Alkali, expressed concerns over the slow pace of CCECC in the reconstruction of the Eastern Railway corridor. He attributed the delay to the contractor’s use of the manual alignment process for track laying.
Once completed, the Eastern Railway is expected to establish rail connectivity across several states, including Rivers, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe, and Borno, fostering economic development and regional integration.
