"Mr. Igwemezie, who said he has been involved in negotiation with Nigerian officials in the last 18 months to construct several rail lines in the country, disclosed that it took “only two months to get the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) executed with Iraqi officials”. Hinting at his frustration to offer his services to Nigeria, Mr. Igwemezie said, “as a Diaspora person, I kept coming back, knocking, to help Nigeria. On the other hand I can’t knock forever.”
A Nigerian engineer, Jude Igwemezie, has won a $500 million contract to build a monorail network in Iraq.
Mr. Igwemezie trained and lives in Canada; he also heads TransGlobim International, the engineering company that won the bid. The contract is to construct what is described as “a viable rail transportation network” for the city of Najaf. The network will connect three Islamic holy and historic mosques in Imam Ali, Kufa and Sahle.
Frustration of selling good ideas in Nigeria
An elated Mr. Igwemezie told NEXT in a telephone interview that the project is billed to be completed in three years, and will be built in two phases. The first phase, he said, will cover the design, construction and operation of the system while the second phase will involve the expansion of the system and its extension to the Najaf airport and the final phase.
Mr. Igwemezie, who said he has been involved in negotiation with Nigerian officials in the last 18 months to construct several rail lines in the country, disclosed that it took “only two months to get the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) executed with Iraqi officials”.
Hinting at his frustration to offer his services to Nigeria, Mr. Igwemezie said, “as a Diaspora person, I kept coming back, knocking, to help Nigeria. On the other hand I can’t knock forever.”
Problem of railway in Nigeria
Mr. Igwemezie, who wants to build a standard gauge railway system from Lagos to Calabar, believes that Nigeria is a place where railway service is going to be “profitable and successful because of its size and population and because we have a demography similar to that in Europe”. However, he said, the bane of railway in Nigeria is that “we have brought the wrong people to help us”.
Gains of railway
Mr. Igwemezie, who lost his father in a road accident, believes that the railway line will take pressure off the roads and rid them of the unnecessary delays and loss of lives associated with road travel.
He described the Benin-Ore road as “a killing field”, and said with the construction of the East-West corridor, there is no reason why someone who lives in Benin cannot work in Lagos since it will only take two hours on an express line to get to Lagos from Benin.
By Nicholas Ibekwe
http://www.iq- airways.com/ AirqAirways/ newsDetails. php?newsId= 654
Signing of a memorandum of understanding to build a train hanging in the province of Najaf
2009-09-28
The Ministry of Transport represented by the company Assembly of the railway and the Iraqi province of Najaf, a memorandum of understanding for construction of a railway Pending train within the province of Najaf for the purpose of absorbing Zhamat that happen in Conservation through visits and religious occasions and signed for by the province of Najaf,
Mr. Najaf Governor Adnan al-Najaf and said that maintaining undertaken to provide better services Distinguished visitors to the giant project will be important in the transport process within Province and added that the project no matter how giant in the transport process within the province and added that the
The project is being implemented by investing in a Canadian company under the supervision of a dedicated staff of General Company for Iraqi Railways and after completion of the project Will be moved 25 Thousand passengers per hour and the station will be next to the description of net Imam Ali (AS) is a Central Station towards areas of the province and the speed of the train is suspended from 90? 120 km At two-track line will be identified and tracks from the shrine of Imam (AS) to Kufa And the mosque courtyard, through the easy revolted
He said the train will be composed of four vehicles Traveling with my cart leadership and noted that the above-mentioned project will be a way of investment and will Provides significant employment opportunities for a large number of the unemployed
