Following its award of preferred bidder status by the
Federal Government of Nigeria in May 2017, an International Consortium last Friday
in Washington D.C, signed an agreement to proceed with the Interim Phase of the
Nigerian narrow-gauge railway concession, reports ITRealms.
Initiated by General Electric, the world’s
premier digital industrial company, the Consortium is comprised of SinoHydro, a
leading infrastructure construction services corporation, Transnet, a leader in
transportation and logistics infrastructure management and APM Terminals, a
global port, terminal and intermodal inland services provider.
In the interim phase of the rail concession, Remedial Works
will be carried out on part of the narrow-gauge rail line system to make it
technically and economically operable. Additionally, a joint operation will be
established between the Consortium and the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC)
with an initial supply of 10 locomotives and 200 wagons to augment the existing
rolling stock in Nigeria.
This program is expected to deliver an increase in the
number of available locomotives, thus increasing the frequency of passenger and
freight rail services. In addition, freight haulage capacity by the end of the
first 12 months of the interim phase is expected to increase roughly ten-fold,
from its current less than 50,000 metric tonnes per annum to about 500,000
metric tonnes per annum.
Speaking on the occasion, Lazarus Angbazo, CEO of GE Nigeria
said “GE is committed to the sustainable development of Nigeria and as such we
are delighted to have reached this crucial stage of the project to revamp and
revitalize the country’s legacy rail infrastructure system. The Consortium
looks forward to commencing execution of this Interim Phase with the continued
support of the Federal Government and the Ministry of Transportation. As
operations begin, our strong partners, such as Transnet and SinoHydro, will
bring their strong operating and development skills to the forefront.”
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