NRC Revenue Hits 200 Million Naira Per Month, Says Okhiria
Grace Michael
The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), has achieved a monthly revenue of N200 millions.
The Managing Director of NRC, Engr Fidet Okhiria stated this during an interview with some journalists after the interment of late Chief Security Officer to the Minister of Transportation, Mr Tony Iwelu in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State on Saturday, March 14, 2020.
“The Corporation now rakes in about 200 million monthly out of which he says about 100 million goes into operational cost like fueling, maintenance and cleaning”, he explained.
On the train service subsidy, he said “Subsidy cannot be over if you quantify the cost. Now we operate with about N100m every month, like cleaning, washing, security, fuelling, maintenance. The staff are being paid by government. That’s why I said if Government pays you salary, it’s a subsidy. They also bring the money for ballast, It’s still subsidy.”
On the old tracks, Engr Okhiria said trains have been running from Lagos to Ibadan once a week and also moving freight from the port for customers. “We intend to start moving food produce from the north down south while we are running from Port Harcourt to Aba twice a week. We have introduced the Enugu Obim. We hope that within the next one month, we will be able to link Enugu to Port Harcourt and finish with the bridge at Emene that we are working on and if that is done we will be able to link Port Harcourt with the up North”, he stated.
For the new coaches, He revealed that two locomotives have arrived. “You know it’s not easy to move by road, we hope that in the next three weeks, the other two locomotives and eight coaches would have arrived Kaduna. Immediately they arrive we will commission them and start operations with them. With that we can have the hourly train” added.
He further noted that the DME will be non-stop train to Kaduna and a different price, which is yet to be fixed with the ones that can only take 24 people and another two that can take 56 people, with the normal ones. No pricing yet as we are still working on it.
