Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is set to officially inaugurate the Itakpe-Warri rail line in September as it commences full commercial activities.
Mr Fidet Okhiria, the Managing Director, NRC, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Warri.
He said the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi has directed that commercial activities should commence immediately after six months of free ride and test running of the service.
He, however, explained that even though the stations were not completed, hub stations will be created with mobile houses to commence operation.
The managing director said that the route operates four times a week, saying that by weekend a new train schedule will be drawn and price fixed to commence full operation on Monday.
“What we have done is to create hub stations in a very close vicinity to passengers, so once we finish those hub stations, there will be mobile portable houses to sell tickets and carry out our operations.
“We have about six portable houses on different locations on the route.
“We have about 12 stations at various levels of completion, some are just at the roofing stages, the office and clinic are ready.
“We will start the commercial activities at a variable cost as part of the test run and trial run; it is better passengers get use to the cost before they think train services are free.
“We want people to know that it is better to travel by rail because it is safer and quicker.
”We are trying to arrange vehicles at Itakpe to transport passengers to Abuja,” he said.
The managing director said that the marketing department has started reaching out to companies for the movement of cargoes on the route.
Okhiria, however, said that NRC was determined to complete Ibadan-Kano and Itakpe-Lokoja in 2019 once the budgetary allocation was released.===NAN
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