The Federal Government on Monday announced that it had received some coaches and locomotives to be deployed on key rail lines in Nigeria.

It said the coaches were the last set which were ordered in March.

It was also gathered that the locomotives and coaches, which arrived Nigeria from China, would be deployed once operations begin.

The government disclosed this via a tweet by the Nigerian Railway Corporation through its official Twitter handle, which was also confirmed to our correspondent by the NRC’s spokesperson, Yakub Mahmood.

The corporation said,

Some days ago, Nigeria took delivery of the last dozens of train coaches ordered in the month of March.

The coaches have been transported to Nigerian train base in Papalanto, Ogun State and will be used on the Lagos-Ibadan railway when operations begin.

Mahmood said new locomotives and coaches for the Abuja-Kaduna rail line had arrived in the Federal Capital Territory.

Some of the new coaches and locomotives are already at the Abuja station, while others are en-route Abuja,

he said.

He, however, noted that the trains would only be deployed for use when the government lifts the ban on interstate movement.

We don’t know when we are going to start using them; it is until they allow us to start operating interstate service that we can deploy the trains for use,

Mahmood said.

He added,

So it is the Federal Government that will give the go-ahead for the re-opening of interstate movements under the advice of the NCDC, before we can start passenger services on these routes.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.