The Presidential Task Force has declared that rail transport will resume shortly after domestic flight restarts operation.
The rail transport was suspended following the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country.
Speaking on Monday in Abuja at the daily briefing by members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, the National Coordinator, Sani Aliyu, said the rail transport would also begin as soon as the ban on interstate travel is lifted.
Aliyu said the Task Force would work with the transportation ministry to ensure that the Nigerian Railway Corporation put measures in place to observe all its directives.
Airlifting of stranded Nigerians to end July
The Federal Government has set a maximum of four weeks to complete the evacuation of over 4,000 Nigerians stranded in various countries.
The Presidential Taskforce (PTF) said it will evacuate 1,000 of such Nigerians weekly.
The citizens are stranded in various countries across following the global lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. Already, 1,523 Nigerians have been evacuated as at June 13.
According to PTF Coordinator, Dr. Sani Aliyu, 500 of the evacuees would be landing in Abuja and the other 500 will be landing in Lagos.
He said they will be coming in under the new evacuation protocol, which demands a pre-evacuation test.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama said: “As the National Coordinator had mentioned earlier, that the mechanism that Dangote Foundation and others have put together to alleviate the need for evacuees to check into hotels for 14 days is now fully implemented and moving ahead well.
“So, if we can organise everything well, in the next three to four weeks maximum, we really should be able to bring home all of our evacuees who want to come back home.”
He added: “So, it is excellent news for evacuees and, of course, for friends and families here because it is going to commit us to be more predictable. It gives us more predictability in this evacuation and also enables us to bring more people back.”
