Business
NRC To Receive Five Locomotives, February
Sequel to the promise made by the Minister of Transport, Alhaji Ibrahim Bio recently that the Federal Government has ordered 25 locomotive engines, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is to receive the first batch of five locomotive engines in February this year.
The Tide has reliably gathered that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has already issued a letter of credit (LC) to General Electric of Brazil as requested by the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Nigerian Railways, to cover the balance of payment for the procurement of 25 new locomotives.
The station manager of the NRC in Port Harcourt, Mr. Biodun Daniel in a chat with The Tide said that the arrival of the new locomotive engines would go a long way to turn around the operations of the NRC, if the promise made by government sees the light of day.
According to Biodun, several promises have been made in the past with respect to rehabilitation of the Nigerian Railways, but that they did not materialise, pointing out that only the arrival of the first batch of locomotives in February as promised will determine how serious government is on the matter.
He said that the NRC at the moment particularly in the Eastern zone of the corporation, had only one locomotive engine in operation, and that it was used mostly to operate between Enugu and other nearby communities around Benue belt to carry agricultural products.
The Tide also gathered that the arrival of the brand new locomotives in batches is in line with the contract agreement, and that hence, the arrival of the first batch of five engines next month will begin a new era in the NRC’s operations, while the complete delivery of all the 25 would be concluded in September this year.
It was also disclosed that the expansion of the rail track was on-going and would likely be concluded before the arrival of the new locomotives, and that about $24 million had been paid to a consultancy firm The Team Consultants, for its consultancy on Kaduna – Abuja single track standard gauge spanning 180 kilometres.
Also the scope of work for the Ibadan – Lagos segment was under review, while the Ajaokuta – Warri line project which was before now to cover the contract for completion of 22km track distance, had now been expanded to accommodate the rehabilitation of the entire 254km line.
These also included the reconstruction of undermined bridges and culverts, and other exigencies that are related to the job.
Corlins Walter
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