Federal government said the extension of the Abuja-Kaduna rail line to Kano would begin end of June.
The minister of transportation, Chibuike Amaechi stated this during the official commissioning of the Lagos to Ibadan rail line yesterday in Lagos.

According to him, “We have about three or four projects. This month, we will start Kano-Kaduna and then we will also start Port Harcourt to Maiduguri which also is done by CCECC and then Kano-Maradi”.

The minister also called for the maximum utilisation of the commissioned Lagos-Ibadan rail facility.
On his assessment of the rail projects, the minister said, “We are grateful the president, who had the courage to take the loan that we took from China Exim bank. As people are here celebrating today, I tell people that this place was a huge forest that we and CCECC had to go through and we have achieved it today. The celebration is not enough. It is the impact it would have on the economy; the goods and services, the personnel it would have to move in record time.

“While we are celebrating that, we are not happy that up until now, the China Exim bank is yet to approve the loan for Ibadan to Kano because we need to start that and complete it quickly because that is my fear.”

“We are grateful that the Chinese government through the China Exim bank was able to give us the loan at a concessionary rate to construct from the seaport. We hope that we get money to be able to construct from Ibadan to Kano so that we can complete the track and make sure that business takes place.

“We have about three or four projects. This month, we will start Kaduna to Kano and then we will also start Port Harcourt to Maiduguri which also is also done by CCECC and then Kano-Maradi.”