Emeka Moses
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council APC-PCC has said President Bola Tinubu will inaugurate the Kaduna-Kano Standard Gauge Railway on December 3, 2026, and has ordered that all outstanding land acquisition and compensation issues in Kaduna metropolis be settled immediately.
The directive is meant to clear the way for the completion of the railway corridor from Abuja to Kano.
Council spokesman, Dele Alake, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja said the President “is accelerating the completion of major railway projects in Northern Nigeria.”
According to Alake, the President “has also directed that all outstanding land acquisition and compensation issues within Kaduna metropolis should be resolved immediately so that the railway corridor from Abuja to Kano will be completed.”
The statement specifically said the “completed 190-kilometre Jaji-Kano section” of the Kaduna-Kano project and the “250-kilometre Dawanu-Kano-Kazaure-Daura-Katsina section of the Kano-Maradi project will be inaugurated by December 3, 2026.”
Alake said the Kaduna-Kano line has reached “approximately 90 percent completion,” while the 400-kilometre Kano-Katsina-Maradi railway “has attained 70 percent completion.”
He said both projects were far behind when the President took office. “When President Tinubu assumed office in 2023, Kano-Katsina-Maradi rail project was at barely 5% while Kaduna-Kano was less than 30% completion,” the statement said.
The Kaduna-Kano line is an extension of the existing Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge line. It “will establish a continuous rail connection between Abuja, Kaduna, Zaria and Kano,” the statement said.
The statement said a Federal Government team recently inspected the two projects on the President’s directive. The team was led by the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Engr. Funso Adebiyi.
Adebiyi “expressed satisfaction with the quality of construction work, particularly the railway alignment, drainage infrastructure, embankment protection, stone pitching and soil stabilisation,” the statement said.
It added that the inspection “included a train test-run journey from Jaji in Kaduna State to Kano, allowing officials to assess the completed track infrastructure and passenger comfort.”
On what the lines will deliver, Alake said the Kaduna-Kano railway, when operational, “will improve passenger transportation, facilitate commercial activities and provide an alternative to road travel along one of Northern Nigeria’s busiest commercial corridors.”
He said the Kano-Katsina-Maradi railway “is expected to strengthen cross-border transportation and trade between Nigeria and the neighbouring Niger Republic.”
“In line with President Tinubu’s agenda, all ongoing infrastructure projects will be delivered in every part of the country as scheduled,” Alake said.
