Senate urges states to fix railway access roads

The Senate has urged state governments to improve access roads to railway stations, emphasising that a modernised rail system with robust state-level support could alleviate road congestion, improve logistics, and spur regional economic growth.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Land Transport, Adamu Aliero, said this during an inspection tour from Lagos to Abeokuta, as part of the committee’s oversight function of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).

He also expressed optimism about the railway modernisation programme, saying it would ensure every legislative process in favour of the NRC to achieve its mandate on railway modernisation.

The composition of the committee includes Benson Friday Kombowei (Vice Chairman), Sharafadeen Alli, Tony Nwoye, Kelvin Chukwu, Plang Dicket, and Clerk of the Committee and Solomon Jokotoye. They were on a tour of the NRC facilities.

Aliero said the committee was willing and committed to making sure that the NRC meets its mandate by providing all the legislative support it was supposed to give to the corporation.
He said the supplementary appropriation contained N530 billion counterpart funding for railway, modernisation and rehabilitation. According to him, 85 per cent of the funding will be sourced from the China Exim Bank, the African Development Bank among others.

“Just last week, we were at General Gowon’s lecture for his 90th birthday and the President of the African Development Bank told us that $350 million will be released to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“We are impressed with what we have seen so far from Lagos to Abeokuta and even up to Ibadan as we have been informed reliably by the acting managing director of NRC. What we have seen today is in line with global standards as we have seen in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States.”

Aliero commended NRC’s partnership with international contractors, such as CCECC, which has been instrumental in transferring technical expertise to Nigerian engineers.
“This capacity-building is expected to strengthen Nigeria’s rail sector, providing a foundation for sustainable maintenance and operations even after foreign contractors leave,” he said.