FG begins CNG locomotives engine test-run 

Oru Leonard 

The Federal Government of Nigeria has commenced the test-run of train locomotive engines already converted from diesel to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) on Tuesday.

The Minister of Transportation, Senator Said Alkali, announced this on Monday, when he made an inspection tour of the Idu National Railway Station Abuja, to ascertain the level of readiness of the retrofitting workshop which is designed to aid the test run process.

Alkali said that, it is the Government’s intention to drastically reduce the cost of maintenance as well as maintain a clean environment against carbon emissions.

The Minister said the switch to CNG, which would bring the locomotive engines to run on 30 percent diesel, and 70 percent CNG is in line with the presidential order to switch to CNG, noting that, the Government intends to drastically reduce the cost of maintenance as well as maintain a clean environment devoid of carbon emissions.

“We have come to assess, what we have been putting up for the last month and to interface with the engineers to further analyze the possibility of converting our locomotives from diesel to gas.

“So far we have interacted with the engineers and the process has reached the advanced stage, the engine is to be test-run and I can tell you that this is the first of its kind in the whole of the African Continent.

“The engine is going to work on 30 per cent of diesel and 70 per cent on gas. By the time the driver starts the engine, it would use diesel, but when it is fully engaged, it then automatically switches over to gas for the rest of the journey,” said Alkali.

The Minister, further revealed that, the target is to reduce maintenance cost to about sixty to seventy percent, control carbon to make the environment more friendly and free from hazards.

The CNG test run would begin from Abuja, Kaduna rail corridor, while its application would later move to other corridors across the country.