The planned haulage of petroleum products by rail from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) jetties in Lagos to Kano may not be realisable after all, LEADERSHIP has gathered.

Also affected in this policy delay is the movement of people from the southern to northern part of the country which, due to some logistic challenges, must wait till next year.

Part of these challenges, our investigations revealed, include the collapse of the railway bridges between Jangaru and Minna stations, in Niger State, which need total reconstruction.

Also, the Lagos-Kano rail line was closed to traffic over three years ago to give way for the rehabilitation of tracks linking the two major cities. At that time, the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) had promised that all cargo and passenger services would commence in April this year.

To actualise this, the corporation had imported 20 units of pressurised fuel tanker wagons at N600 million, each with a capacity for 40 tons. The tankers arrived the shores of Nigeria in March this year.

LEADERSHIP gathered that, with the collapse of Jangaru bridge and subsequent re-awarding of part of the 640km Jebba-Kano axis to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), recently, Nigerians and petroleum marketers may have to wait till 2013 to begin to enjoy the rail services along the Lagos-Kano line.

Our investigation also revealed that the possibility of fuel haulage on that route was further lowered by the non-rehabilitation of the rail tracks at the ports and around the oil jetties in Lagos, even as the NRC insisted that the service would commence soon.

LEADERSHIP noted that such promises have become ritualistic: the service which was scheduled to commence in April shifted to May, June, July and we are now in August. Yet again, it has been shifted to 2013.

“We are doing the rehabilitation of rail tracks at the port in collaboration with the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA). That one is not a major project. Once we get the bridge solved, services will commence and that I can assure Nigerians will be soon,” David Ndakotsu, NRC’s deputy director, public relations, said.

The federal government had, in 2009, awarded contracts for the rehabilitation of the line to CCECC and Constain West Africa Plc. The Chinese corporation got the 488-kilometre Lagos-Jebba axis, while Constain was awarded the 640-km Jebba-Kano end.

However, LEADERSHIP gathered that the rehabilitation of the 1128km Lagos rail track first suffered a major setback with the tactical withdrawal of Constain from the project. Constain was compelled to subcontract the Jebba-Kano project to CCECC when it was obvious that it could not deliver on time. The problem faced by Constain may not be unconnected with a major challenge at the Akire bridge where flood had washed away part of the tracks.

The Jebba-Minna line was scheduled to be handed over to the NRC in July when the Akire bridge was billed to have been completed.

But, with the collapse of the bridge between Jangaru and Minna stations, the handing over may yet be shifted again to next year.

The corporation recently in Minna unveiled some refurbished rolling stocks and said that it had taken stocks of new locomotives with the hope of commencing mass movement of passengers and goods from Lagos to Kano.

 

 

 

Source: http://leadership.ng