The Federal Government has announced its plans to hand over train services hitherto managed by the Nigerian Railway Corporation -NRC, to the private sector to engender efficiency and effectiveness in the running of the services.
This was revealed in a statement issued by the Minister of Transport, Muazu Sambo.
This was after Sambo had reiterated that train services in the Abuja-Kaduna line would resume after 24-hour surveillance and immediate response apparatus had been put in place to forestall any future attack.
“The NRC cannot be the owner, operator, and regulator at the same time. The private sector is the engine of growth. Someone else will operate the lines efficiently,” he commented
On the resumption of the Abuja-Kaduna train services, the minister said that commercial operations would resume after security measures were installed to prevent any reoccurrence of train attacks within the country.
Previously, the chairman of the NRC board, Ibrahim Musa, had told Sambo that due to the high price of purchasing diesel, the cost of running the trains was so high and that the service was running at a loss.
He called on the minister to intervene as the railway service was one of the things the Buhari administration boasts of, most especially the railway lines in Lagos – Ibadan, Warri – Itakpe, and the Abuja-Kaduna railway lines respectively.
