The Minister of Transportation, Sen. Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali, has called for immediate technical evaluation of the proposal to transit Nigeria Railway Corporation’s (NRC’s) locomotives from diesel to LNG – CNG as part of the current drive by the government towards ensuring sustainable and cheaper energy sources for the operations of the rail system
The Director of Press and Public Relations of the ministry, Olujimi Oyetomi, in a statement on Wednesday quoted the minister as reiterating the desire of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to provide Nigerians with efficient, affordable, and sustainable transportation based on the recent removal of subsidy on fuel.
Alkali disclosed that the conversion of the corporation’s locomotives to LNG-CNG powered proposed was presented for joint consideration of the Transport ministry and NRC by De-Sadel consortium on Tuesday at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
The Minister expressed optimism that evaluation by the technical committee could hasten the process of the switch from the more expensive diesel to gas.
Based on this, he directed the immediate setting up of a 7-man technical committee to work within 7 to 14 days and come up with far-reaching outcomes towards a successful implementation of a dual-fuel locomotive retrofit that could lead to further effective, efficient and possibly cheaper rail services for Nigerians as well as more revenue for government from its railways operations.
Alkali explained: “It is the desire of our President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to provide an efficient, affordable, and sustainable transportation system for the people of this great country and I am sure this would go a long way in bringing down the cost of transportation.”
He described the proposition by De-Sadel company’s proposal to retrofit their already available LNG-CNG kits on NRC’s locomotives at no cost to the government, and have the NRC’s locomotive replaced by the company in case of damage as welcomed.
Alkali, who was willing to take the risk of retrofitting an NRC’s locomotive by De-Sadel consortium immediately, asked the Permanent Secretary, Olufemi Oloruntola to constitute a combined team of mechanical engineers from the Transportation Ministry, the NRC and De-Sadel Consortium to get into action and prepare a locomotive of NRC ready for a test run. He predicated his view on progressive combination of diesel-gas usage in a ratio of 50-50 and progressively to 30-70 and invariably, 0-100.
He said: “A committee will be set up immediately after this interactive session, and they are to commence deliberations and discussions at the Ministry’s headquarters. They are to advise and possibly have a gas-powered locomotive ready for test run within the very short possible time.”
The technical committee, which was immediately inaugurated, has since commenced the immediate task of evaluations and reported that the retrofitting was feasible after a visit to the NRC’s workshop on Tuesday at Idu, Abuja, to see the models of locomotives in use by the NRC.
Earlier in his remarks on their proposal, the Managing Director, De-Sadel Consortium, Sam Uko, explained that the company was involved in the business of retrofitting diesel engines to LNG-CNG models, noting that considering the Corporation’s train services, it is desirable integrate the new technology on its trains.
According to him, adopting this will reduce the cost of operations and as well extend the life span of the engine, thus freeing up funds for other sectors.
He assured that apart from the supply of the locomotives, the company would provide technical personnel to retrofit NRC’s diesel locomotives into a gas fueled locomotive and train NRC’s engineers, adding that the company will provide the corporation with a gas supply for five years and allayed fear of scarcity of gas to run the locomotives.
Uko clarified that the implementation strategy of retrofitting into a dual-fuel locomotive shouldn’t be regarded as conversion or modification of the engines.
In addition to retrofitting NRC’s locomotives, De-Sadel Consortium also proposed security installations across the rail corridors in the country, a system that deploys real-time monitoring for the train wagons and the rail lines to deter vandals and attacks.
