The Managing Director of the NRC, Mr Fidet Okhiria is set to leave office after almost eight years in office. In this interview with selected journalists, the NRC MD gives a scorecard of how the Corporation has fared so far under his leadership. Excerpts:
Your second tenure of four years as MD of the NRC is soon coming to an end. How will you rate Nigeria’s railway development in the last eight years since you became MD?
For Nigeria to progress economically, we must have a vibrant railway sector that is delivering on all fronts. In my time as MD of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), the railway has witnessed enormous growth transcending from a narrow-gauge operation to a modernized track called the standard gauge. From 2022 to 2023, it has been hectic, but we thank God that we have been able to move on. It was early in 2023 that we suffered an attack, but we thank God that we were able to overcome that. Since then, we have been moving on seamlessly courtesy collaboration from security agencies. The only problem that we have now is vandalization of the rail tracks. It’s a big problem because once we replace the clips, the people vandalizing the clips come back to cart the new clips away.
A recent case happened just before Christmas between Mushin and Oshodi here in Lagos. 200 clips were removed from the modernized railway track. Three days after we replaced the vandalized section, we went there and saw that the newly replaced clips have also been removed.
We are still looking for a way to protect that section of the rail tracks. Recently, we had a management meeting and discussed on possible measures to safeguard the rail tracks in Lagos. Maybe we would have to engage some persons to help us protect the tracks.
Also, we are trying to recommence our Lagos to Kano operations by next year. Remember that during the maiden visit of the Minister of Transportation, we were given a task to ensure we start running Lagos to Kano by December. We are working on this mandate in-house. As we speak, some locomotives and wagons have arrived Minna successfully. Hopefully by the weekend, we would have moved them to Kaduna.
We would have also moved from Kano, but we have security issues around that axis. Some sleepers were removed near Kano. However, the police are on top of the situation for now.
For Warri-Itakpe rail, we had the tracks vandalized earlier in the year. But ever since we replaced the vandalized sections, we have been running train operations on the track without any record of any other vandalisation.
The problem is whenever we arrest the culprits involved in Railway tracks vandalisation, they always find their way out of police custody.
Like I said earlier in one of my briefings, I think we should look inwards and beam the searchlight on the iron companies who manufacture irons. We are suspecting that these iron companies patronize those that sells iron scraps, this encouraging vandalisation of Railway tracks.
The Lagos cargo train is currently struggling to get cargoes at the Lagos Ports, with many importers lamenting that the cost of moving by rail is high, what is NRC doing to improve patronage of the Lagos cargo rail?
Most of our passengers complained of double or multiple handling charges. Our charges to move a container to and from Lagos to Ibadan is N208,000. If we want to take a container to Ibadan and also return the empty, we charge N208.000; that is N104,000 going and N104,000 coming. I am sure there is no truck or haulage company that will take a container to Ibadan for N104,000, not to talk of taking it back for same amount. So, saying that the cost of moving cargoes by rail is high is not true. Rail remains the most cost-effective means of transporting cargoes from the ports into the hinterland because it is faster and cost-effective. We are having issues at the ports with Terminal Charges because it amounts to double handling when a cargo owner pays that charges inside the port and still pays the same charges after the container gets to Moniya in Ibadan during transloading to another truck for onward movement to final destination. Lagos-Ibadan cargo rail for now stops at Ibadan, but for many of the cargoes that we move, Ibadan is not their final destination. So, we once complained to the Terminal operators to stop collecting Terminal charges on cargoes inside the port before they are loaded on the trains, and the charges was removed; However, I have been reliably told that the charges is back again. The Terminal Charges ranges between N40,000 to N60,000, and is a major reason why many cargo owners are opting to move their containers from the port by road because it won’t apply once the evacuation is done via road haulage. It only applies when the evacuation is done via rail haulage. It is double handling because when the cargoes get to Moniya in Ibadan by rail, it will still have to be moved onto a truck for onward movement to final destination, and the trucker in Ibadan will still demand for handling charges. That’s the problem we are currently facing at the port. The least we can do for a Lagos-Ibadan return trip is N208,000 because we have to factor in the cost of diesel. We believe that by the time the standard gauge gets to Kano, the issue of double handling charges would become history because importers will have no choice other than to move by rail from Lagos to Kano. Why we are still having double handling charges is because the containers, when they get to Ibadan, will still be loaded on another truck for onward movement up North; but when Lagos-Kano comes on stream, that will be eradicated. As I speak to you, more people are coming to ask that we move their cargoes by rail both for import and export.
On new lines, what is the latest update on some of them?
The Federal Government desire is to ensure that all State capitals are linked by rail, and all Inland Dry Ports and seaports are also linked by rail. Presently, work is going on the Kaduna-Kano rail. The contractor has started laying tracks in a place called Makarfi close to Zaria down to Kano. The formation from Makarfi to Kaduna to Zaria to link Idu is ongoing.
The Kano-Maradi construction is also ongoing. For the Calabar-Port Harcourt-Lagos Coastal rail, serious meetings is already ongoing to see the quickest and easiest way of raising funds. Also, the Ibadan-Abuja rail is also sourcing for fund. The line is expected to run from Ibadan through Minna to Abuja.
The Lagos Red Line is expected to use the NRC standard gauge tracks for its operation. What has been done to ensure there is no conflict between both operations?
When we were constructing the standard gauge track, the Lagos State Government was to construct a separate track for its Red Line. However, the cost of getting the Right of Way for a separate track for the Lagos Red Line was becoming too hectic, so at one of our steering committee meetings where the Lagos State Government always attends, we told the committee that instead of spending that huge amount to secure the right of way for the Red Line, the Lagos State Government should come and use our standard gauge. The worst that will happen is that we will stop running Mass Transit Trains (MTT) on the standard gauge. What the state government will just need to do is to provide the Rolling Stock for its Red Line operations. We have also developed what is called Track Access Framework that will guide the usage of the standard gauge by other parties.
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