The retrofitting of Locomotives of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) from diesel to gas reached advance stage, the Minister of Transportation, Said Ahmed Alkali has said.
He stated this during an inspection tour of the project at the Idu Railway Yard, where he interfaced with the engineers handling the conversion.
“The purpose of the visit is to have an on the spot assessment of the retrofitting of our locomotives from diesel to gas that we started in the last one month, to come and see the process so far, and to interface with the engineers, to further analyze the possibilities or otherwise. So far, we have interacted with the engineers, the process has reached an advanced stage” he said.
The Minister said that under the arrangement, the engine would be converted to work on 70 per cent gas and 30 per cent on gas, stressing that the running of the locomotive engine would start by diesel, and then switch to gas once it is up and running.
According to Alkali, the whole process would bring down the cost of maintenance to about 60 to 70 per cent, and also control emissions as any locomotive using gas cannot produce carbon emission.
“We want to start with Kaduna-Abuja corridor because the workshop is in Abuja here where we are doing the retrofitting. So once we finish that of Abuja-Kaduna Corridor, then we will start with all the remaining corridors” he said.
He said that the test-running of the engine would start tomorrow after which the government will decide when to start.
