The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) says commercial activities on the ongoing modernised Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Railway project will begin in September this year from Agege in Lagos to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Already, 53 coaches, 30 locomotives, 200 wagons of different standards have been ordered to arrive in batches in preparation for the kick-off.
Fidet Okhiria, managing director, NRC, disclosed last week during a routine inspection of the project.
“There are different classes of coaches such as business, economy and luxury, which passengers can choose from according to taste or ability to pay. The standard gauge railway locomotive is designed to run at a speed of 150 kilometres per hour,” Okhiria said.
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For example, there are those that have only 24 seats that can be collapsed into beds, rotated to up to 180 degrees, and those to be used as conference rooms’ coaches.
“When they come we will add more coaches to Abuja-Kaduna. We will reinforce Itape-Warri, and the beauty of that is that there are coaches of different standards,” the managing director said.
The NRC boss stated that action on another phase of the standard gauge railway project had begun from Lagos end towards the Apapa seaport, saying, “Work is going on from Ebute Metta towards the ports. They are relocating the narrow gauge to have more rooms for the standard gauge. That is what is going on right now.”
New bridges will be built to replace the ones marked for demolition before the destruction of the old ones to give way to the project, stressing, “We don’t want to throw Lagosians into chaotic situation,” by first demolishing bridges before building alternatives, he pointed out.
He described the project as a long time plan, which had been realised. “What you are seeing now is not a dream of yesterday. It was a dream of as far back as 1995, when the survey was done. 2006 was contract awarding year,” he said.
