By Adelola Amihere
Following the breakdown of the Abuja to Kaduna pasenger train and the delays experienced due to faulty locomotives, the Minister of Transportation, Hon Chibuike Amaechi has apologised to Nigerians assuring that the Chinese company will be responsible for the repairs as the locomotives were under warranty.
This is just as he dismissed the notion that Nigerian engineers do not possess the technical expertise to effect the repairs but argued that since the locomotives were less than six months, the warranty allowed for the company to effect the repairs.
Recall that on November 20, the Abuja-Kaduna train stopped in the middle of the journey leaving passengers stranded.
This will not be the first time the new acquired locomotives will be failing on Abuja-Kaduna rail route.
The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) had said the locomotive breakdown was due to failed turbocharge
The Minister who stated this after the monthly inspection of the Lagos ibadan rail line at the ibadan station said “I will like to apologise to Nigerians over what’s happening at Abuja to kaduna line. Its worrisome in the sense that they are brand new locomotives. We may be forced to bring back our old locomotives.
‘”The locomotives are under warranty. We have called the chinese to come back for the locomotives that are bad or have failed more than two or three times.
“This is a new locomotive that has gone bad. Even if we have the expertise to repair it and we do have this expertise, the truth is that NRC sent engineers to fix it, but we should be worried that brand new locomotives that we bought failed. We are saying this is brand new, it should not fail by now, it should be failing after 3 to 5 years. There is a warranty and we have to call them back.”
The Minister however said this may therefore affect the number of train schedules.
Expressing his dissatisfaction over the slow pace of work on the completion of the train stations along the Lagos to Ibadan rail line, the Minister announced that “the Permanent Secretary, myself chairman of NRC, and MD NRC have agreed that the technical committee should meet with them tomorrow to ensure that they put measures that the pace of work is increased so that by d next time we come here for inspection, we will see a huge improvement”.
