Nigeria’s minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has revealed that the proposed transportation university which is expected to gulp $50 million (N18bn) and to be located in Daura, Katsina state, will start by next year.
Daily Trust reports that the university is to be built by the China Civil and Construction Company (CCECC) as part of the federal government’s efforts to develop qualified manpower to manage the many railways’ facilities across the country.
The report said Amaechi spoke in Abuja recently and added that in addition to Katsina, another such university might be built in Rivers state to meet the growing demand of manpower in the transportation sector.
The minister said the contract had been awarded to CCECC and that the construction would have commenced if the governor of Katsina state had provided land for it. Amaechi said once the state government provided the land, CCECC would mobilize to site and fence the land for construction to start.
According to him, the young Nigerians being trained on scholarship in China on Railway Engineering would be deployed to teach in those universities for a period of time before they are allowed to do other endeavours.
“If we get the land, the fencing will start this year. The CCECC has written to ask for land from the state government,” he said.
It was earlier reported that Rotimi Amaechi, Nigeria’s transport minister, visited Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos, revealing that work on the Apapa corridor of the “Lagos-Ibadan rail” project would commence next week.
It was also learnt that Amaechi spoke to journalists after a strategic meeting with the Ambode and his team at the Lagos House in Alausa, Ikeja, saying it was gratifying to report that contractors would move to site to continue the rail project from Apapa as part of efforts to bring about a permanent solution to the perennial traffic gridlock in the axis.
