FG unveils plan for nationwide railway connectivity
Kayode Opeifa, managing director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), has said that the federal government will soon unveil a comprehensive national railway development roadmap aimed at ensuring rail connectivity across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
According to a statement by Callistus Unyimadu, chief public relations officer at NRC, Opeifa stated this on Wednesday at the seventh national transport conference of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration (CIOTA), held in Abuja.
Opeifa said the roadmap is designed to enable every state to access and utilise the national rail corridors at no additional cost.
He said this followed recent legislative amendments that moved railway development to the concurrent legislative list.
The NRC boss said Lagos and Plateau have already begun taking advantage of the new policy, while other states are being encouraged to follow suit.
“We are saying where there is a national rail asset, states should make use of it. The line is available from Lagos to Kano. If your state is along this corridor, you can run services on the line. Lagos and Plateau are already doing this and we are open to working with others,” Opeifa said.
He added that Ogun and Oyo states have both narrow and standard gauge networks available for use, while Edo, Delta, Kogi, Kaduna, Kano, and Niger states can connect seamlessly to existing national corridors.
Opeifa highlighted the ongoing freight-by-rail expansion, noting that the cooperation is transporting increased volumes of containerised cargo, gypsum, soda ash, cement, metal coils, and materials for the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline project.
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Speaking on the corporation’s development projection framework, known as Vision 2-5-10-20, Opeifa said the NRC plans to optimize national rail assets within the first two years and transition to electric traction by the fifth year.
Opeifa added that the corporation also targets doubling the country’s rail capacity within 10 years and expanding the network to at least 60,000 kilometres over the next 20 years.
“While speaking on the Corporation’s development projection framework, referred to as Vision 2-5-10-20, he stated that the NRC plans to optimize national rail assets within the first two years, transition to electric traction by the fifth year, double national rail capacity within ten years, and achieve not less than 60,000 kilometers of rail network nationwide within 20 years,” the statement read.
