NRC moves to reactivate Nguru, other lines to convey farm produce

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Comrade Dr Kayode Opeifa, has assured that the corporation would leverage the success of the recently reactivated freight movement to open more routes for massive freight movement across the country.

He hinted at plans by the corporation to reactivate century old lines like the Nguru line in Yobe, Idogo in Ogun State, among others to expand cargo movement across the country.

Opeifa spoke at the NRC headquarters in Lagos while hosting the leadership of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration (CIOTA), led by the national president and chairman of the board, Dr Olusegun Obayendo.

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It would be recalled that the NRC recently relaunched freight movement from the Apapa Port to the Moniya in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge.

The MD stated that the NRC is taking full advantage of its position as the facilitator of business, thereby fulfilling its traditional mandate not only as a rail transport management company, but also a logistics firm.

He stated that the corporation has commenced freight movement of containers, bulk goods including cement, gypsum, soda ash, coils, among others from the ports in partnership with some terminal operators, logistics companies and manufacturing concerns. 

He said in a matter of months, the corporation would achieve seamless cargo movement beyond Ibadan on the narrow gauge western line from Lagos, as movement to Ilorin, Mokwa and Minna would soon begin.

“We are happy to inform Nigerians that we are gradually taking back our space as the centre of bulk or large cargo movement over a long distance which hitherto has been taken over by other modes especially the road.

“We are not only working on the standard gauge to move cargoes, we are also working on the nation’s food belt. We hope to activate lines such as the Nguru, and Idogo lines to ensure that we move farm produce to the markets in the city,” he said.

Earlier the CIOTA President Olusegun Obayendo commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for appointing Opeifa for the job, describing him as a “round peg in a round hole.”