Derailment: NRC begins restoration work on damaged Kaduna train, track

• Stalls train movement

Nigerian Railway Corporation says it has mobilised personnel and needed facilities to the Kaduna track site, where a freight train derailed on Saturday, to commence the restoration of the damaged infrastructure.

Railway District Manager for the area (North), Ismail Adebiyi, stated this in a telephone interview with NewsTrends on Monday.

The Zaria-bound train loaded with water pipes from Lagos had derailed at Unguwa Kanawa in the Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State, after experience some technical faults.

Although the incident claimed no life, Adebiyi said, “The impact was much as it destroyed the entire formation.”

This, he said, had stalled train movement in and out of Kaduna, adding that until the whole area was fully cleared and the facilities restored, they could not run train services.

The RDM however assured that before the end of the week the repair work would be completed and train movement could resume.

He the repair work would involve re-railing of the damaged locomotive (engine) as well as the wagons.

“We are currently at the site of the derailment. We have started the re-railing of the loco engine and we’ll b working on the wagons too,” Adebiyi said.

He attributed the derailment to a section of the track vandalized by hoodlums, adding that the NRC team had held a preliminary meeting with the Kaduna State Emergency Management Authority and planned a bigger forum later with other stakeholders on how to stem the act of vandalising railway facilities.