FEC Okays $328.87m Railway Consultancy Services, N115.4bn Katsina Road Dualisation

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved N115.4bn for the dualisation of the proposed Kano-Kazaure-Kongolam highway in Katsina State from single carriageway to a dual carriageway.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who disclosed this to State House correspondents after the council meeting, explained that the project which covers 131.4 kilometers would be completed in 48 months.

Fashola said: “The Ministry of Works and Housing presented a memo for the dualisation of the Kano-Kazaure-Kongolam highway’s 131.4 kilometers from a single carriageway to dual carriageway.

“So, the council approved that proposal at a cost of N115,425, 896,907.15 kobo over 48 months. The instructive thing is that the financing will be done by the Tax Credit Scheme of BUA International Limited.

“And they will use Messrs PW Construction Nigeria Limited, a company in which they have acquired some interest to undertake the construction.”

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said his ministry presented two memos involving the contract for sundry consultancy services for the supervision of the various railway projects across the country.

Amaechi said: “Remember that we have about three railway projects that are yet to start construction and they include the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri, Kano-Maradi and then the Abuja-Warri.

“That’s for Abuja to Warri. For the consultancy services for the supervision of Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Railway, with branch lines to Bonny Deep Seaport and Port Harcourt Industrial Park and then to Owerri, We have Kyari Consults SDMBHD/Jamood Global Services Limited at $97.5m. The first one is $38.4m.

“Consultancy services for the supervision of Kano-Katsina-Jibia-Maradi rail-line was approved for Technics Engineering Architecture Marketing Nigeria Limited and that is for $47,670,000. All of them are for a period of 36 months.

“The second one is that the cabinet approved a concessionaire agreement for the Ministry of Transportation to concession the Onitsha River Port to a company called Inversal Elysium Consortium. They are to manage the river port for 30 years.”