House committee on Land Transport tours NRC facilities, moves for railway unbundling

House committee on Land Transport tours NRC facilities, moves for railway unbundling 

The House of Representatives is taking steps towards the unbundling of the Nigerian Railway Corporation to fully deregulate the industry and encourage more private sector investments.

Chairman, House Committee on Land Transport, Blessing Onuh, stated this on Friday after leading members of the committee on a visit of the NRC facilities on the Lagos corridor.

She spoke a few months after the railway development/management was moved from the exclusive legislative to concurrent list giving state governments powers to build and operate railway systems.

Onuh, daughter of the former Senate President Senator David Mark, who is representing the Otukpo/Ohimini Federal Constituency, said a bill for the unbundling of the NRC was already before the House of Representatives.

“The unbundling will allow people to come in and develop the rail sector,” she noted.

She also said, “The bill has passed the first reading. Hopefully, it will be coming for second reading shortly.

“That bill is a proposed bill to unbundle the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to allow companies to come in; to allow private partnership (firms) to invest in the rail sector and that will enhance development.”

She said an effective railway transport system would enhance the socio-economic development of the country.

She stressed that the committee would provide the needed legislative support for the rail transport mode to thrive.

“Rail transport is very vital to the development of every nation. So, we need to encourage the railway transport sector,” she said.

Onuh said they were during the facility tour taken through the various units of train operations by the NRC Managing Director, Mr Fidet Okhiria and other management team, including the Alex Ekwueme Control Tower, before boarding the standard train at the Mobolaji Johnson Train Station in Lagos for a trip to Ibadan.

She said the team made a stopover at the Kajola Wagon Assembly Plant (KWAP), where the committee was informed that the facility was one of the Corporate Social Responsibility’s contributions by the Chinese contractors to the Nigerian government.

NRC MD Okhiria also spoke on the central control centre, saying it had not been activated due to unstable power supply, adding that efforts were underway to develop a stable energy source as well as a back-up energy to enable the control centre monitor everything happening on the entire railway corridor.