The Minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi says the Abuja-Kaduna railway project will be completed and commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2016.

The Minister said this on Wednesday, June 1, after he inspected the level of work that has been done on the project so far.

“We are looking at bringing Mr. President to commission in July. In two weeks’ time, they will do the test run of the track without passengers, after that it will take another two weeks to do test run with passengers and it will be free of charge and that will take us to the end of June, which means by first week in July, we believe that the President will come and flag it off for commercial service”, he said.

It would be recalled that the Abuja-Kaduna Rail project was initiated by Former President Goodluck Jonathan, but work on it stopped following the inability of the administration to release funding.

The minister who was joined by top officials of his ministry to test run the first trip on one of the trains from Idu to Kubwa, commended the contractor handling the project and noted that the train service is coming at a time when commuters were in need of an effective means of public transportation.

He also said that plans are underway between the Ministry of Transport and the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC, to ensure that affordable fares are charged for using the train.

Amaechi further stated that adequate security measures will be provided in and around the train stations to ensure that only passengers whose identities have been screened and certified will board the trains.

He said over one thousand police personnel will be deployed to man the railway during and after it’s commissioning.