Publisher's Synopsis
In 1953, a World Bank Mission visited Nigeria. and recommended an extension of the railways or the construction of a heavy traffic highway if Nigeria was to meet an anticipated expansion of agricultural production in the northeastern part of the country. . The mission served that the choice between roads or rail transport for the new area must be based on the total cost of either mode to the community and on the possibility of making the users of the facility share the cost. Stressing the need for a decision to take into account the traffic potential of the developing northeast, the mission concluded that the railway alternative was likely to prove more advantageous in the end. The government opted for the railway, which was begun in 1958. In 1962 the first section of this 644-kilometre Bornu Extension was completed with the opening of the Kuru-Gombe line, while the remaining section was opened in 1964, with the additional in 1966 of a 9.6 - kilometre branch line from Alesa Eleme oil Refinery of Eleleanwa in the Port Harcourt to Enugu railway connecting the two principal seaports, Lagos and Port Harcourt, with the major urban centres in the interior.
