There are strong indications that additional coaches would be deployed on the 186.5-kilometre Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor and the initial number of coaches deployed on the soon-to-be-completed 157-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail lines following the acquisition of more coaches and wagons by the Nigerian government from China this week.
A seven-man Federal Government delegation led by Hussaini Adamu, director of procurement in the Federal Ministry of Transport (FMoT) accompanied by other top officials of the ministry and the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), returned from China Wednesday at the end of a trip for the final acceptance test of 44 units of coaches and locomotives.
Passenger preference for the Abuja-Kaduna train service has been on the rise in the wake of reported frequent cases of kidnapping and killings and banditry along the ever-busy Abuja-Kaduna highway.
The increase in the number of travelers by rail with a shortage of coaches has resulted to increase in train fares with ticket racketeering by railway staff becoming an embarrassment both to the FMoT and the management of the NRC.
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A breakdown of the 44 units being acquired by the government shows that 29 are standard and 15 executives, respectively, with additional 16-diesel multiple units (DMUs) already shipped and is being expected to arrive Lagos any moment from now. Already in use for the regular inspection on the Lagos-Ibadan rail corridor are four VIP coaches and two Conference coaches.
The government on Tuesday said the Lagos-Ibadan railway line would be ready for commissioning April 2020. While speaking as a guest on Good Morning Nigeria, a current affair programme of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, underscored the importance of rail transportation to the economic revival of the country.
Amaechi noted that President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was laying a solid infrastructural foundation capable of redefining capital projects implementation since the country’s return to democratic governance in 1999.
The minister said an estimated 30 million tons of goods get to Kano and Kaduna from Lagos annually, with over 90 percent of these goods transported by road, adding that with railway back on stream, the roads would be less congested, thus minimising the cost of maintenance for both federal and state governments.
He said, “We have put the President on notice that we are ready to commission the Lagos- Ibadan railway by April. Probably, since we have democracy day in May, he may wish to commission during the month.”
He recalled that when the current administration took over in 2015, the Abuja- Kaduna railway was 80 percent completed, but nearly abandoned.
‘’We had to address the issues, complete the project and commission it for usage within one year. We then commenced the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan railway and the Itakpe-Warri railway. If you go to Agbor yard, you will see the huge investment in the yard,” he said.
