Nigeria turns to Asia to revamp ailing railway system

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LAGOS, Nov 18 (AFP): Once the pride of the nation, Nigeria's railways, like much of the rest of the infrastructure in the west African country, have slowly crumbled into disrepair.
The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) has enlisted the help of China and South Korea to revamp its network.
None too soon. By train it takes two hours to cover the 32 kilometres of decrepit track linking Ijoko to Lagos, the country's commercial hub.
On the plus side it costs just 60 US cents (40 euro cents). And since the bus takes twice as long and costs six times as much, the poor still commute by train.
Chugging along at snail's pace should soon be a thing of the past. NRC spokesman David Ndakotsu told the news agency the two Asian countries will upgrade the rail system in four phases over a total of 20 years and at an estimated cost of 35 billion dollars (23.9 billion euros).
In the first phase of the project, the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) has started rebuilding the existing network between Lagos and northern Nigeria's commercial hub Kano to standard gauge for 3.5 billion dollars (2.39 billion euros).
CCECC President Lin Rongxin said 50,000 Nigerians would work on the 1,315 kilometre line that he said would be "a design, construct and maintain project."
China recently granted Nigeria a 2.5 billion-dollar loan, much of which is expected to be used in the project, he added.
The second phase, to be handled by South Korea, will include a link between the southern oil city of Port Harcourt and Jos in central Plateau State.