By Hope James
The Governor of Cross River State, Senator Bassey Otu, has said the construction of the Calabar-Obudu railway line will cost $350 million, Edum News reports.
Otu disclosed this while carrying out the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday.
He noted that it is a 365-kilometres railway that will connect the southern part of the state with the north, adding that the project is a Public-Private Partnership-funded initiative, driven by Messers Reinhoke LLC, in partnership with the state government.
While performing the groundbreaking ceremony at premises of Tinapa Free Zone Resort, the governor alsowtated that the public-private partnership in the provision of the infrastructure was based on funds from equity investments and debt financing from financial institutions with significant backing from Cross River State government.
He said, “Today, therefore, marks an important milestone in our quest to expand and diversify the stock of our infrastructure by partnering with Messers Reinhoke LLC for the construction of the Grandlito Railway Project that will run from Calabar to Obudu.
”On completion, the project will cover an approximate distance of 365km with main terminals in Calabar and Obudu; while three sub-stations will be located at Ugep, Ikom and Ogoja.
“Cross River is frontier to Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Sao Tome and Principe. It is also home to the largest export processing zone in Nigeria – the Calabar Free Trade Zone (CFTZ).
“The railway line will not only facilitate the easy intra-state movement, but will also serve as evacuation corridor for goods and services within international borders”.
