Confab Committee Wants Ajaokuta-Warri Rail Line Completed

The National Conference Committee on Transportation has asked the Federal Government to urgently complete the Ajaokuta-Warri Rail Line before the 2015 general elections. The committee also recommended that the three parastatals in aviation industry, which were earlier merged, should be returned to the status quo, while all airports in the country must be opened 24 hours. It is the submission of the committee that foreign airlines must be encouraged to employ more Nigerians as workers. The parastatals are the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and Nigerian Airspace Management Authority. The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Musa Adede, while presenting the reports and recommendations of the committee at the plenary on Tuesday in Abuja, said what was required to complete the project was less than N40bn. According to him, it is the recommendation of the committee that the project should be completed before the country will begin another election in 2015. He said, “The Ajaokuta Warri Rail Line was awarded in 1986, with the total completion period of five years; as I speak to you 14 years after, that project has not been completed and it is very important for us to realise that the Ajaokuta-Warri Rail Line should be completed. “And so it is the committee’s view that this project must be completed and inaugurated before 2015 as what is required to complete it is less than N40bn; the more we continue to delay, the more it will cost us to complete.” The committee also recommended the deployment of integrated transport infrastructure development that will instantly appreciate steel and allied materials for use in the road transportation, housing and remodelling both Ajaokuta and Osogbo Steel Rolling Mills. “We should encourage public private joint venture in the provision of transport services. The Federal Government is encouraged as well as other tiers of governments to develop partnership that will lead to development of all the rural roads in the country,” the committee said. On Aviation, the committee said, “The 2013 National Civil Aviation Rule should be further reviewed by the stakeholders as initial review process seems to have excluded some stakeholders. The increase in passenger traffic to and from Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, which is the seat of government, the runway facility for the Abuja Airport master plan have not been fully developed as existing facilities are inadequate.” Source: Punch