The Federal Government has taken delivery of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) retrofitted locomotive for the Nigeria Railway Corporation’s (NRC). The achievement was as a result of the Public-Private Partnership with the De-Sadel Consortium.
The locomotive is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Now capable of running on a dual-fuel system, will use 70% LNG and 30% diesel to reduce running cost, marking a shift from reliance on diesel alone.
Said Alkali, the Minister of Transportation, made this known during the final test run of the retrofitted locomotive from the Idu Train Terminal to the Kubwa Train Station in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The locomotive
“To God be the glory; the locomotive is successfully retrofitted. The retrofit will enables the engines to work on a dual-fuel system with the locomotive running on 70 per cent gas and 30% diesel”, he said.
“The idea is that by the time you use LNG 70%, the cost of running the locomotive will drastically reduce. There was a presidential directive that all ministries, departments and agencies to transit from petroleum and diesel to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and LNG” The minister added.
He said that President Bola Tinubu wanted to bring down the cost of transportation in the country by converting from diesel to gas.
“Transportation is the gateway of the nation’s economy. By the time the cost of transportation is low, obviously inflation will drop”, he further said.
Regarding the partnership with De-Sadel, Alkali said that the ministry has been engaging with investors to boost the ministry’s lot.
“Immediately when I took over as the minster of transportation, the ministry was open to investors. De-Sadel approached the ministry that they are going to retrofit all our locomotives for 70 per cent LNG and 30 per cent diesel. Today, the locomotive is successfully retrofitted. We are riding on the locomotive”.
He further said that the idea of retrofitting was to unbundle the Nigerian Railway Corporation adding that already, the National Assembly has started the process of unbundling the NRC Act through repeal and reenactment.
“This is so that we allow private investors to come and invest in all our rail corridors,” Alkali said.
Samuel Uko, Chief Executive Officer, of De-Sadel Consortium, shared that the 20-year partnership with the federal government aims to retrofit all NRC locomotives to run on LNG. Uko emphasized that this transition to LNG would reduce transportation costs by up to 50%, contributing significantly to curbing inflation in the country.
