The Enugu State government has announced plans to build a 117 Kilometre-long monorail line. During the presentation of the project to the Urban Development Bank of Nigeria (UDBN) Plc. in Abuja, the State Governor, Sullivan Chime revealed that the project would cost the state government $1.6 billion dollars. Describing the monorail transport system as safe, self-sustaining and economically viable, Chime urged the UDBN to collaborate with the state government and its technical partner, Globim Trans International of Canada, by allowing the state to access part of the bank’s N10billion Public Mass Transit Revolving Loan Scheme. He said the project, which will create 4,000 new jobs, would be executed in six phases. The first phase of the project would be completed between 20 to 24 months from the date of financing. Responding, the Managing Director of UDBN, Adekunle Oyinloye, revealed that the bank had granted more than N8billion loans under the Loan scheme within the last year. He expressed the bank’s willingness to partner with all willing state governments to address their infrastructural needs including water, roads, waste management, rural mobility and tourism, through the use of alternative financing techniques. He said state and local governments need to embrace the concept of joint service schemes to arrest infrastructural decay in various sectors, in order to achieve some of the Millennium Development Goals and socio-economic reforms.
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