By Aliyu DANLADI
The Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr Fidet Okhiria, ) has said that the corporation would begin free train ride service from Itakpe to Warri.
Okhiria said on Thursday while inspecting the ongoing construction of train terminal at Ujevwu community in Delta, that the free ride will be for one month.
According to him, the 202 kilometres train journey will connect many communities and improve social and economic life of the people.
“NRC will start free train ride along Agbhor-Itakpe corridor for a month to test run the service.
“Government wants to provide good service so that goods and services can be affordable for the communities.
“We are not going to limit ourselves to passengers alone or to township service but also transport goods and services,” he said.
The managing director said that the rail service would complement road transport to enhance movement of goods and services in the state.
Okhiria said that seven new coaches train will transport over 400 passengers on a trip from Itakpe to Warri on daily basis.
He advised the residents to make proper use of the opportunity to enhance their social and economic life.
The managing director said youths in the communities would also be employed to maintain the tracks and in other services.
Mr Alfred Ketekpe, the Secretary Ujevwu Community in Warri, thanked the NRC for the gesture and urged the corporation to provide walk access road to the train terminal.
The Secretary also said that the communities were facing the challenges of power outage urging NRC to come to their aid.
He begged the corporation to carry the youths in the communities along in the recruitment process to curb high rate of unemployment.
“We need light in these our communities, because no light, no school and we also need job for our youths,” he said.
The Itakpe-Warri train service would serve over 1,000 passengers daily on its test run service for one month.
