China is to build the 1,400-km-long Lagos-Kano Railway, the first standard railway in Nigeria, a spokesman for the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) said here on Monday.

The construction of the double-track line would involve a total investment of 8.3 billion U.S. dollars, NRC Spokesman David Ndakotsu told reporters in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos.

To pave way for the new line, he said, "the NRC management has set up monitoring units in its seven districts to identify and demolish structures in areas proposed for the new standard rail."

Ndakotsu said masts erected by public utility companies and private organizations on the corridors of the proposed standard gauge would be demolished.

He added that such organizations had been served a month's notice to relocate such facilities.

"The NRC is hopeful that companies such as the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, the Nigerian Telecommunication Corporation ( NITEL) and private telephone operators who have erected masts, cables and pylons on the rail lines will comply with the directive, " he said.

Ndakotsu expressed satisfaction with the level of support the corporation had received from the governments of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Kaduna and Kano states on the Lagos-Kano railway project that will traverse these states.

The spokesman said these states had initiated moves to reclaim for the NRC its abused properties and also set up task forces to dislodge illegal structures and trespassers within the proposed rail corridors.

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2006)