Kaduna state Government ease traffic congestion in Kaduna with BRT, El Rufai revealed.

According to Governor Nasir El Rufai, the Kaduna State Government has developed a three-pronged strategy to address the state’s transportation issues for effective vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

The governor, who made this announcement during the BRT project’s launching, chronicles the government’s efforts to secure funding for the projects.

‘’We began to explore the possibility of having a light rail stretching from Rigachikun to Maraban Rido and we made progress securing financing from Indian Xing Bank to the tune of 6 million dollars to execute that project.

‘’We engaged the famous French Transportation Consulting firm, Systra to do the feasibility studies as well as engineering design for the project,’’ he added.

However, El Rufai bemoaned the government’s inability to “identify an operator, someone who will operate the light rail when it is finished.” And we believe it is crucial to finish that before moving on.

BRT, which the government first struggled to finance, is, in his opinion, the second element of solving the transportation issues.

However, the governor claimed that “the French government graciously stepped in and granted us a line of credit, a concessionary line of credit to finance this project,” through its development agency, AFD.

El Rufai expressed gratitude to the ‘’government of France as well as the Ambassador and her team for being patient and pushing very hard to get this project to this stage. ‘’

He expressed confidence that Kaduna would have a working BRT system in a few years, transporting tens of thousands of people each day.

With this scheme, the governor claimed, the government will collaborate with smaller bus companies and the Kaduna State Transport Authority to “carry most of the traffic of people coming to work and returning home every day in the city of Kaduna.”

‘’We hope with the success of this project, we will extend this to Zaria Metropolitan area and Kafanchan Municipal area and gradually to all our major towns and cities,’’ he said.

El Rufai thanked the French government for its assistance, the Federal Ministry of Finance for securing the facility related to the deal, as well as all the Organizations that contributed to making this possible.

The governor gave special thanks to the Director General of the Kaduna State Transport Regulatory Authority, Aisha Saidu Bala, and the Commissioner of Public Works and Infrastructure, Mr. Thomas Gyang, for all of their efforts.

Her Excellency Emmanuelle Blatmann, the French ambassador who laid the foundation stone alongside the governor of the state, responded by calling the project “ambitious” and a 110 euro investment.

She expressed the hope that other states in the nation will use the Kaduna model as a guide to follow.

Additionally, Her Excellency stated that the project will assist over 100,000 people and that over 100,000 commuters will utilize the service everyday.

The ambassador believed that the commercial ties between France and Nigeria will grow stronger as a result of this cooperation.