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Construction firms, General Electric (GE) and the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Ltd (CCECC), will establish universities of Transportation in Nigeria.
Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, disclosed this at The Osasu Show symposium in Abuja on Friday.
The two firms are handling the rail federal government rail projects. Amaechi said they will build universities of transportation to train and empower Nigerians to build locomotives in about 10 to 15 years.
He said the government is not only focusing on making the rail lines in Nigeria work, but also building capacity for Nigerians.
Amaechi also disclosed that by the end of 2017, CCECC will be taking about 100 Nigerians to China to learn at undegraduate, postgraduate and PhD levels to return to Nigeria as faculty for the university of transportation.
He also said: “In the next 10 to 15 years, we should be able to fabricate locomotives, fabricate coaches — but in fabricating locomotives and coaches, we need to fix Ajaokuta steel mill,” Amaechi said.
The minister also revealed that CCECC will deliver on the Lagos-Ibadan segment of the Lagos-Kano rail line by December 2018.