2022 Budget: FG To Spend N71.6bn On Surveillance On Abuja-Kaduna Rail Line, Others

The Federal Government has earmarked N71, 671,088,783 for the installation of acoustic sens­ing security surveillance system for Abuja-Kaduna rail project.

The government also planned to expend the sum on the completion of the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri rail track and structures, reha­bilitation of Itakpe-Ajaoku­ta rail line and permanent way (track works) in Agbor facility yard and design, manufacturing, supply and installation of rolling stock, supply of spare parts and maintenance equipment for the ongoing rail modernisa­tion projects.

These are contained in the 2022 Appropriation Bill presented to the National As­sembly recently by President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the budget proposal, the government also proposed to commence installation of signal and tele­coms system on Itakpe-Ajao­kuta-Warri rail line, land ac­quisition for the expansion of the railways headquarters and completion of feasibility studies for railway projects.

Besides, the government planned to pay back the sum of N69.3 billion multilateral/ bilateral project-tied loans, which were spent on the modernisation project of the Lagos-Ibadan section of the railways.

Also, the Ministry of Transportation said that it planned to purchase law books, management of liti­gation and other legal-relat­ed specialised projects at the tune of N230 million in the next financial year, while another N75 million was pro­posed for the purchase of of­fice furniture and equipment in the coming year by the ministry.

Besides, the Appropriation Bill revealed that the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) in its 2022 budget planned to procure diesel for the power cars and locomotives at the rate of N510 million. The cor­poration, however, said this project was “ongoing.”

According to the 2022 pro­posal, the NRC said it would spend the sum of N500 mil­lion on the maintenance of track, including emergency recovery, bridge and culverts repair within the rail corri­dors. The management said this was “ongoing.”

Also, the railway manage­ment emphasised that it in­tended to expend additional N400 million on maintenance of roads into stations, rest houses, workshop, chalets and operational residential quarters.

The corporation also said that it would spend another N500 million on the procure­ment of spare parts for its locomotives, coaches and wagons in the coming year.

The government said that the procurement of this would curb incessant break­down of trains on the tracks.

Recall that several passen­gers of trains have continued to complain about the consis­tent breakdown of trains at major stops and their failures to depart as scheduled, while Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, Minis­ter of Transportation, had attributed this act to lack of adequate spare parts.

In one of such occasions in July, Amaechi blamed in­cessant breakdowns of loco­motives on the Abuja-Kadu­na on lack of spare parts to replace worn out parts.

source: independent