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After what looked like it has been forgotten, the federal government, at last, remembered the Eastern corridor of the Nigeria Railway in its rail rehabilitation project. President Muhammadu Buhari was reported to have performed the groundbreaking ceremony for commencement of work on the Eastern Corridor, last Tuesday.
But unlike other railway projects in different parts of the country that are on Standard Gauge, such as the Lagos-Kano line, Abuja-Kaduna line, Lagos-Ibadan line, Warri-Itakpe line, etc., the Eastern Railway Corridor will be on a narrow gauge rail track.
The Eastern Corridor stretches from Bonny Ports to Port Harcourt, with a spur to Owerri, to link the Aba- Enugu rail line, other spurs to Abakaliki and Awka, before linking up to Makurdi, Lafia, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe, and finally to Maidugiri, the Borno State capital.
Inner bar dredging of Mongla Port begins
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DHAKA, March 13, 2021 (BSS) – The inner bar dredging of Mongla Port began today aiming at increasing the port’s capacity to ensure smooth arrival of ships with a draft of 9.5 metres to 10 metres at the port jetty.
State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury inaugurated the dredging project “Inner Bar Dredging of Mongla Port Channel” at Jaymonir Ghol in Mongla.
Khulna City Mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleq, Deputy Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Habibun Nahar, Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change Mohammad Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury, Chairman of Mongla Port Authority Rear Admiral Mohammad Musa and Project Director Sheikh Shawkat Ali were present at the inaugural function, among others.
A bottleneck on the rail route between Dhaka and the country s north-western and southern regions is unlikely to go away anytime soon as one of the two projects aimed at improving the track capacity are stuck in limbo due to delayed loan negotiations and a cost-cutting directive.
To tackle the growing traffic movement, Bangladesh Railway (BR) had undertaken a project to build a dedicated rail bridge over the Jamuna river and another to turn the Joydebpur-Ishwardi section into a dual-gauge double line.
While the first project has witnessed 20 percent progress and is expected to be completed by August 2024, physical work on the second is yet to start.
By Dirisu Yakubu – Port- Harcourt
The Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri Eastern narrow gauge rail line will boost transshipment of goods in the West African sub-region and Continental Free Trade Area, CFTA, President Muhammadu Buhari stated on Tuesday.
The President disclosed this at the groundbreaking ceremony of the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the 2,044km narrow gauge in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.
President Buhari who Presided over the event virtually from the Presidential Villa, Abuja said the corridor comes with new branch lines to Owerri and Damaturu, capitals of Imo and Yobe states respectively.
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He said: “The connection of the railway to a new deep seaport in Bonny Island and Railway Industrial Park, Port Harcourt is designed to increase the viability and boost transshipment of cargo and freight locally, across the West African sub-region and in the Continental Free Trade Area.