Getting Trains Off the Rotten Tracks

The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is to get the private sector to inject funds into the rail system. Observers say the Public Private Partnership (PPP) may be the elixir for greater efficiency of the country’s rail system, writes Adeyinka Aderibigbe
The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) will tomorrow open a new investment window aimed at deepening its capacity to respond to the desire of Nigerians to modernise its operations and increase its passenger and freight haulage capacity. Members of the private sector will gather for a one-day Public-Private Stakeholders Workshop to get private funds for the use of the corporation. The workshop will take place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

In the last four years, there has been considerable commitment to get the trains working optimally, as government increases its yearly budgetary allocation.

That the rot in the railway sub-sector should be frontally addressed is no gainsaying. Transportation experts said with a population of 170 million people, Nigeria can no longer continue to rely on a single mode of transportation.

Over-reliance on road transportation, via the use of trucks and articulated vehicles, (for freights haulage) and buses, (whether mini, midi, or maxi), or private cars, for passenger transit, experts argued, have put more pressure on the roads, leading to the wearing of the roads, and has resulted in high rates of fatalities.

Culled fro THE NATION


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By: SAMOD BIOBAKU