MAIDUGURI-DUWARI MASS TRANSIT TRAIN SERVICE DEBUTS

THE Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), in Maiduguri, has inaugurated its 23 kilometre Maiduguri-Duwari Mass Transit Train Service (MTTS).

The NRC Managing Director, Mr. Adeseyi Sijuade, said at the ceremony that the facility would provide affordable services to the less-privileged in the society.

Sijuade pointed out that the gesture was part of efforts of NRC management to revitalise the corporation and restore its past glory.

'Our target is to revamp the railway with a view to running freight and passenger train services most effectively and in conformity with global trends. The NRC has successfully began an intercity MTTS in Lagos with 11 trains carrying close to 15,000 passengers daily,'' he said, adding that the corporation had begun train service in Jos, Kano and Kaduna.

'In no distant time we shall replicate similar MTTS services in Enugu and Port Harcourt as soon as the road construction embarked upon by the Rivers Government around the track line is completed,' he said.

Sijuade said that work would soon start on Maiduguri-Port Harcourt rail line as the NRC management had awarded contract for its rehabilitation.

He said that as the completion of the Lagos-Kano rehabilitation work got closer, the NRC would award contract for the rehabilitation of Maiduguri-Port Harcourt line.

'The ongoing rehabilitation of the Lagos-Kano line, a distance of 1,128 kilometers, has recorded tremendous progress,'' he said.

Also speaking, the Minister of Transport, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman, said the inauguration was in fulfillment of the Federal Government's promise to revamp the rail industry in no distant time.

MAIDUGURI-DUWARI MASS TRANSIT TRAIN SERVICE DEBUTS