The Ministry of Transportation on Monday signed a contract for the commencement of the Kano-Maradi and Kano-Dutse railway project with Mota-Engil Group, a multinational engineering and construction firm.
This is in fulfillment of the promise made by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, that construction work on the Kano/Maradi railway corridor would commence by February this year.
READ ALSO: Nigeria Loses 1.64 Million High-Speed Internet Connections In November
As part of the deal, the contractor pledged to build a university in the country.
“Today, we signed the contract documents for the commencement of the Kano-Maradi, Kano-Dutse railway project. The contractor, Mota-Engil Group, a multinational engineering and construction firm, has also agreed to build a university as part of their CSR while working on the project,” Amaechi tweeted on Wednesday.
The minister had ordered the contractors to begin acquisition of the right of way, payment of compensation and Right-of-Way clearing since October last year.
According to him, the contractors have commenced the front-end engineering process to ascertain the technical requirements and main cost of the execution phase.
He had also asked the company to evaluate the potential risk of the project before January ending.
The Federal Executive Council had approved about $1.96bn for the railway line from Kano/Jigawa/Katsina/Jibia to Maradi in Niger Republic.
The contractor, Mota-Engil Group, is a Portuguese engineering and construction, which signed a similar contract with the Ghanaian government last week for the design and build of the Accra-Tema Motorway and Extensions.
In October 2018, Mota-Engil Africa was listed as the preferred bidder for the project and after a due diligence mission conducted by a delegation composed of the Ministry of Finance, the Nigerian Railway Company (NRC) and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the company was recommended for the project.
