The installation of an Acoustical Sensing Security surveillance system for the Abuja (IDU)- Kaduna railway is one of the items the federal government has planned to include in the 2023 budget at a total cost of over N30 billion.
Other items include, among others, the completion of the Abuja-Kaduna railway, the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan and related additional works, the rehabilitation of the Itakpe-Ajaokuta rail line and the construction of 12 NOS stations and track laying works at the railway ancillary facilities area in Agbor
The sum, which is a component of the executive proposal of the federal government in the 2023 Appropriations Bill, also includes about N126.53 billion for the parent Ministry of Transport.
Of the figure, the Ministry of Transport headquarters gets N93.66 billion; Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC, gets N20.45 billion; National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, gets N5.39 billion.
Others are: National Institute of Transportation, NIT, which gets N4.69; Maritime Academy, Oron, receives N1.55 billion, while Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria gets N775 million.
Also, the Federal Government has proposed to spend a total of N4,31 billion of its N126.53 billion budget on purchase of trains, under the line items, code: 23010111, while N100 billion would be expended on facilitating the Mass Transit scheme.
Procurement and rehabilitation of rolling stock (Narrow Gauge), and rehabilitation of narrow gauge track from Minna to Narrow with extension to the Baro River Port, which are ongoing, would gulp N2.98 billion.
Also, establishment and management of six national freight offices nationwide, which is ongoing gulps N100 million, while N10 million would be spent on education and construction of speed reduction signages using the International Road Assessment Program, CIRAP, with Federal Capital Territory Authority, FCTA.
The federal government has also planned to spend N45 million on rehabilitation of central Air conditioner system, toilets and offices and leakages on the roof, and physical head count of staff of the ministry.