Engr. Fidet Okhiria, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, says the monthly revenue realised from train service operations on Abuja-Kaduna rail line has dropped from N500 million to N1 million monthly.
Speaking during the inspection of the Idu Train Station on Wednesday in Abuja, Okhiria said the essence of the tour was to correct some issues highlighted by the Minister of Transportation, Saidu Alkali, which include escalators, elevators and allowances of security men.
He explained, “Currently, we do two return trips against the 10 we were doing before that incident and we were running from 6 am to 10 pm but now we have been advised not to exceed 6 pm.
“So, we are hopeful that when the security situation normalises and they are able to advise us, we can start the full operation so that we can break even.”
The Managing Director said that they have paid two months out of the 5 months outstanding allowances and hope to conclude it soon.
We recall that bandits detonated a bomb on the rail track of Abuja-Kaduna train and successfully immobilised the train between Katari and Rijana last year.
They kidnapped several passengers who were later released after an unspecified amount of ransom was paid.
