FG Inaugurates Committee on Eastern, Western Railway Lines

Tobi Soniyi in Abuja

The Federal Government has inaugurated a steering committee ‎for the concessioning of the eastern and western lines of the Nigeria Railways.

While inaugurating the committee, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, said it was set up to create a one-stop shop for the concession, fast-track the process and beat the redtape and bureaucratic bottlenecks.

He said the steering committee for the concession of the nation’s railway headed by the Transportation Minister, Mr.Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, should be innovative, urging the members to remove whatever obstacles were standing in the way of a smooth concessioning process.

He expressed the hope that the committee would meet its deadline and end up “to be an example of how it should be done.”

Observing the challenges of bureacratic bottlenecks in the public service delivery system, he said the Buhari administration was determined to overcome it.

Osinbajo said: “I think this steering committee is extremely important, because we have tried to bring together everybody that should be involved in this (concessioning) project in order to see to it that we deliver quickly and efficiently in a manner that justifies Federal Government’s expense in the project.

“The whole idea of the steering committee raises the issue we are trying to address, to have a one-stop shop for all approvals, objections or problems so that we can realize our target.”

Speaking after the inauguration, the Minister of Transportation said that the committee was set up to ensure the concession of the nation’s railway and was expected to submit its report in six months’ time.

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