The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) announced that due to suspended operations rising from the March 28 Abuj-aKaduna train terrorists attack, it has lost a sum of lost N531million between March and August 2022.
This was disclosed by its MD, Fidet Okhiria, during a press briefing held at the NRC’s headquarters in Ebute Metta, Lagos on Wednesday.
Okhiria noted that before the attack, the NRC was doing ten trips a day, which it planned on increasing to 12 a day.
What he said:
He also noted that the NRC reduced the number of trips on the Lagos-Ibadan route to four, and Itakpe-Warri to two, stressing that the corporation lost N531million to inactivity on the Abuja-Kaduna route between March and August 2022.
The NRC added that it planned to increase the Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge trips and also increase the Lagos-Ibadan train to 10 trips
“We were already doing 10 trips per day on the Abuja-Kaduna and thought that by now, it would have increased to 12, six to six for so that people could properly schedule their movement using the train.
“Regrettably, due to inactivity on the Abuja-Kaduna train, which was caused by the last terrorist attack, we have recorded a shortfall of N531 million on the Abuja-Kaduna route from March to August 2022.
“The shortfall is from expected income, following the disruption occasioned by the train attack.
“While we are trying to resolve that and people are building confidence, we have this astronomical challenge in the cost of diesel from N300 plus to over N1000 per liter, ’’he said.
He also noted that the Lagos-Ibadan trips dropped because of diesel cost, stating that the NRC has people providing security because of the situation all over the place.
“We have to hire separate security. We have to pay them, whether the train runs or not,” he said.
“We have to pay light bills and still have to buy diesel for the generators servicing the stations, amongst other things, in spite of the inactivity along the Abuja-Kaduna train route and the drop in the Lagos-Ibadan train services.
What you should know
Nairametrics reported last month that the federal government said that it might not be recommencing train services on the Abuja-Kaduna route anytime soon as it would be insensitive to the plight of families whose loved ones are still in captivity.
The FG said it is still trying to determine the right type of surveillance equipment to procure in order to effectively monitor the tracks along the route, citing that the government is looking at concessioning that route under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.
