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BUHARI INSPECTS NEW CHINESE TRAIN FOR NIGERIA

Tony Nwajei's photo.
 The Chinese company the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) visited the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari and presented a prototype of high speed rail project.
This meeting can be a sign that Buhari’s government may be looking to develop a high-speed rail system across Nigeria.
The Chinese delegation defined the president-elect on how the project would work.
Buhari was also shown literature about the project. ...Along with the Chinese delegation was the All Progressives Congress chairman Chief John Oyegun. Early last year, the present administration of President Goodluck Jonathan got Nigeria’s exhausted railway network on its feet with a N24bn ($151.7m) investment programme that engaged the upgrading of tracks and signalling equipment.
With the purchase of 25 GE locomotives and renovation of 500 wagons and passenger coaches, services recommenced on the 1,126km Lagos to Kano line that had been closed for the last 10 years.
Meanwhile, the revitalized railway network stays old-fashioned and the administration planned to upgrade the whole network, which is still running on the narrow device tracks laid down by the British colonial government when they started the service in 1912.
Currently, Nigeria has only two major rail lines, with one connecting Lagos to Yobe and the other connecting Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.
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