President Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday record a landmark achievement as he inaugurates the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri standard gauge train, Nigeria’s first standard gauge system.
The project which was started 37 years ago, received very limited attention from successive military and civilian administrations.
It was reliably gathered that the President will virtually conduct the inauguration of the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri standard gauge system at Abuja.
The Managing Director of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Fidet Okhiria, said Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi will lead some members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as well as government functionaries at the event.
He said the inauguration will take place at the Goodluck Jonathan Train Station at Agbor, from where the transport minister and his team will take a short train ride to Abraka and back to Agbor, to signify the inauguration of the train and beginning of commercial operation on the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri corridor.
The Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri is Nigeria’s flagship railway corridor and first standard gauge train, having been kicked off in 1983 (37 years ago) as an industrial line.
At conception, the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri standard gauge was meant to service the Ajaokuta and Aladja Steel Complex – provide access to billets, raw materials and finished products to sea ports for export.
The Buhari administration, in 2016, changed the corridor from an exclusive industrial line to a mixed service corridor, with the introduction of passenger service, which necessitated the injection of train stations into the project.