Tag Archives: NRC

“Pay us off before railway concession”, NRC staff union tells FG.

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The senior staff association of railway workers, northern district, has said the federal government must “pay off” workers before it concessions facilities of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).

Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, Huseini Abdul, chairman of the association, said the workers were not against the concession but their welfare must be considered.

He said the fate of the workers after the concession was of paramount concern.

“But our major bone of contention here is the workers’ stand, our welfare must be considered by taking all necessary measures towards paying us off before concession,” Abdul said.

“The agitation of our leaders at the headquarters is before the concession, let government pay us off, so that they can recall anybody they are interested in to work with.

“Are we still going to be carried along or we will be retrenched? Actually, we have been hearing from President Muhammadu Buhari through the minister of transport, chief Rotimi Amaechi saying that no worker will lose his job.

“However, we have seen what happened in the cases of NEPA and NITEL, where workers were assured that nobody would be affected, but eventually something went wrong.”

He said the government should allow them own their official residences as directed by an industrial court in Lagos.

“This has been bothering us a lot because you find out that in other organisations, both in the federal and state levels, their houses were given to their workers, why not in the railway.

“We have been paying the rent every month and every year. This privilege was given by President Obasanjo’s administration, and we feel it is high time we also benefit from it.

“This is because we are still within the system and we deserve to be treated as such and to be given such privilege of owning our houses.”

 

Source: The Cable

Nigeria to deploy 150km/hour locomotive on Abuja-Kaduna rail

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The Managing Director, Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, says the corporation will soon deploy a 150 kilometre per hour locomotive on Abuja-Kaduna rail gauge to meet passengers’ demand.

Mr. Okhiria, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on Wednesday in Abuja, said engineers were currently in China for the final factory acceptance test.

He said once the design specification was confirmed by the engineers, the corporation would start making arrangements for its shipment and subsequent deployment.

According to him, the second locomotive for the rail line is also expected to be on track in the next two weeks since the engineers have also gotten the parts.

He added that “very soon, we will get the 150km per hour locomotive being shipped, engineers have just gone for the final factory acceptance test.

“We received information that it has been done and for the second locomotive that is coming in the next two weeks, we will put them on track.

“We are proactive, some of my engineers are already in China and they are going to come back with the pack for the second locomotive next week,’’ he stated.

The NRC boss said that railway stations were always far from the heart of the cities to allow people to move closer to the station in order to help create and expand the city.

He noted that the measure was to avoid demolishing people’s houses and paying compensation, adding that the out of town station encouraged development of towns and cities.

According to him, it is advisable to locate train stations away from city centres, saying the old Kaduna station that is now in the city was originally outside the city.

“However, within the next two years, the station you called out of town would be a major centre of activities.

“It is always like that because we don’t want to demolish houses because we cannot pay money for compensation.”

Okhiria said Nigerians had accepted the railway system, especially the Abuja-Kaduna line, adding that there had been continuous increase in passengers traffic on daily basis.

He assured that more locomotives and coaches would be deployed to the rail line in the coming year for passenger service, noting that NRC was developing the freight angle.

A passenger, Halima Saidu, a businesswoman based in Kaduna, commended the corporation for effective service on the Abuja-Kaduna line.

Ms. Saidu, who said she was travelling on the train for the first time, described the train movement as smooth and fast.

She called on the Federal Government to develop more of the kind of Abuja-Kaduna rail line in every state for easy movement of people.

According to her, if more railways are provided, the pressure on the roads will reduce and the number of road accidents will also reduce.

Innocent Ajiji, the Deputy President, Nigeria Union of Railway Workers, who also rode on the train, said it was smooth to ride on light rail unlike the narrow gauge train.

According to Mr. Ajiji, it is faster and it moves smoothly because it doesn’t make a lot of noise like the narrow gauge train.

“If Federal Government can change the system into standard gauge, I think we will have a better rail system,’’ he said.

Enugu gives 24-hour ultimatum to NRC to replace malfunctioning facilities.

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The Enugu State Government on Wednesday gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to replace malfunctioning facilities in the state to avoid train accident.

The ultimatum was sequel to the killing of a resident of the state by a train on Tuesday along the Ogbete Main Market Enugu.

It could be recalled that the victim, Ikechukwu Imediagwu, a native of Isikwuato in Abia State, the only son of his parents, died instantly, while other persons were said to have sustained injuries.

A government delegation led by the State’s Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Sam Ogbu Nwobodo, expressed anger at the railway crossing in Ogbete Market Enugu, where it discovered that none of the barriers was in good working condition.

Other government officials on the team included the Commissioner for transport, Vitalis Okechi, the caretaker chairmen of Enugu North and Enugu South, Isaac Igwe and Sunday Ugwu among others.

Officials of the Railway Corporation and men of the police traffic unit had engaged in heated argument, as the latter and other eye witnesses insisted that nobody was on ground to give signal before the train suddenly bumped into the market road.
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Nwobodo, however, intervened insisting that government must get to the root of the matter as it was not ready to toy with lives of residents.

“We are talking of loss of life here and I want us to bear that in mind. All the parties involved must cooperate with the government to ensure that this does not happen again.”