The Minister of Transportation, Said Alkali, says the damaged portions of the Abuja–Kaduna tracks will be repaired within the next 10 days.
Mr Alkali said this on Monday in Abuja while addressing journalists after inspecting ongoing development at the site of the train derailment.
Some portions of the rail tracks and coaches were destroyed last Tuesday after a Kaduna-bound train derailed at Asham Station.
According to him, the staff of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) have been working day and night to ensure that the clearing and repairing of the damaged tracks are done at the earliest possible time.
He commended security agencies and other stakeholders for their efforts in ensuring the safety of passengers, workers, and train facilities at the site.
“I thank President Bola Tinubu for his support since the incident occurred in ensuring that we moved the locomotive and the coaches and fixed the rail line in order to restart operation.
”From what I have seen, I also want to commend the Managing Director of the NRC and his team, because they are on the site day and night trying to restore normalcy after the incident,” he said.
The minister, who said his team had done justice to the investigation, however, explained that he was not in a position to preempt the investigation.
“I am here with the full team from the Ministry of Transportation, the director of railway, all his engineers, and even the committee doing the investigation
”The CCECC is here, civil rights organisations, all of us are here to ensure we do justice to the investigations,” the minister said.
Mr Alkali, who said the affected eight coaches would be moved out of the site within two days, added that the path of the track that was affected by the accident was about 150 metres.
“So it’s not something too long. We will be able to fix the sleepers, the pallets, and the rail track so that we will be back in operation.
“It is a cardinal responsibility of government to provide welfare for its citizens. The teams are doing their best to ensure a similar occurrence does not happen again.
“However, it is the outcome of the investigations that will now reveal what actually happened. Then we look at it and ensure it doesn’t happen again by the grace of God Almighty,” he said.
(NAN)