The Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC has announced that from June it will commence the freighting of coal from the Eastline which is from Igumale, Benue State to the sea port in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Acting Managing Director of the corporation, Engr. Fidet Okhiria gave this information to newsmen in Lagos.
He maintained that the corporation has to significantly improve its railway services in order to boost its revenue.
The railway boss said the Federal Government has taken delivery of the rolling stock to be used for the trial run operations and so the trial run of the newly completed Abuja to Kaduna standard gauge will still hold by May.
According to Okhiria: “We intend to start massive coal movement on the eastern line. We are working very hard to ensure that latest by June, the coal movement operations would have commenced.”
He said: “Presently we move cement freight for Lafarge from Ewekoro up North and we also move container freights but we intend to improve on the present freight movement so that we can enhance our revenue.
My management will ensure that we go out to meet our customers and bring them back so that we can fully boost our revenue internally.”
Okhiria said, “The current focus of the FG is to drive the standard gauge, that is, the track modernisation by standard gauge. We are leaving the narrow gauge of 1067mm to 1435mm. And we are happy to announce the arrival of five coaches that will commence the running of the Abuja – Kaduna standard gauge.
We will commence the trial run by May and then commence the full commercial operations by June
“It is no longer news that the FG will be pursuing the course of realising the standard gauge rail from Lagos to Kano and another one from Lagos to Calabar and ensuring that the full completion of the Kaduna – Abuja and Itakpe – Ajaokuta – Port Harcourt standard gauge projects.
The dream of this management is to fully support the government in achieving the dream by providing necessary professional support and advice.”
