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China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) says it has completed the laying of tracks on the Port Harcourt to Aba section of the eastern narrow gauge railway.

In a post published on X, John Zhao, an official of CCECC, announced the completion of the Port Harcourt to Aba rail line.

“New year, new progress! The track laying from Port Harcourt to Aba on the Nigeria Eastern Narrow-Gauge Railway project has been completed by #CCECC,” Zhao wrote.

New year, new progress! The track laying from Port Harcourt to Aba on the Nigeria Eastern Narrow-Gauge Railway project has been completed by #CCECC. pic.twitter.com/F7rLZnIDml

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— John Zhao (CCECC) (@JohnCCECC) January 3, 2024

The announcement of the completion of the tracks was published on the CCECC’s official website on December 29, 2023.

Recently, Fidet Okhiria, the managing director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), said track laying from Port Harcourt to Aba rail section would be ready in 15 days.

In March 2021, former President Muhammed Buhari flagged off the $3.2 billion Port Harcourt to Maiduguri narrow gauge railway reconstruction project.

Rotimi Amaechi, the former minister of transportation, said the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri rail line would connect Rivers, Abia, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe and Borno states by rail.

In April 2023, the federal government announced the commencement of the reconstruction of the eastern rail line.

The federal government had said the Port Harcourt-Enugu section was the first target in the project.

In September 2023, the federal government bemoaned the slow pace of the reconstruction.

The reconstruction of the eastern rail line as a narrow gauge rail had elicited mixed reactions, with some stakeholders arguing that the rail should have been a standard gauge.