Barring all unforeseen circumstances, the Nigerian Railways Corporation will take delivery of two locomotives to be deployed on the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge rail line.
The Managing Director/CEO, Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC) Engr. Fidet Okhiria disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja.
He said the NRC engineers to have returned from the final inspection of the locomotives designed to run for at least 150km/hr and by February 2017, the delivery of the brand new locomotives should happen.
For now, the NRC is using temporary locomotives to run the route thus unable to travel at more than 110km/hr.
“The engineers just returned two weeks ago for the final inspection and test of the two locomotives designed for the standard quage. By next week, we will get their final report and then we will ship the locomotives. We hope that by February, 2017 the new locomotives will be here and we will commission them for use. We can then talk of getting to 150km per hour because the new locomotives can give us that that speed” he said.
Speaking on cargo operations, Engr. Okhiria said the NRC is involved in huge cargo operations but can’t currently meet demand for cargo operations in the country.
“We have huge cargo operations from the South to the North and from the North to the South. We move 20 wagons of cargo per train. We are also trying to link Jos with our mail lines because the Grand Cereal in Jos is putting pressure on us to help them move their products from Jos to Port Harcourt and Abba. We are hoping that in the next one month, we will link Jos. We move fertilizer, cement, containers etc. we move containers for ICNL to Kaduna and Kano. We move fertilizer for Dangote from the port and we also move goods from flower mills. We move cattle, grains and animal feeds from the North” he expplained.
“On passenger trains, we still maintain what we met but we are making it more comfortable as train transportation is the most comfortable and safe. Our flagship, Kaduna-Abuja is doing well. As a professional, I am not happy because we need to run our train on time base. We are running on schedule but we need to run say train services on hourly or every 30 or 15 minutes services. I am not happy that we run only two return trips on a track that is designed for 6 trains at a time within the 186km length of the track” he noted.
