From Mohammed Nasir Shuaibu BAUCHI
The North Eastern District of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is set to construct five kilometre railway track from Bauchi to Inkil along Bauchi -Gombe road to run excursion train for children.
This was disclosed by the new District Manger for the North Eastern District, Bauchi, Comrade Aliyu Marina Sara, who has since taken over from the outgone RDM-Engineer Ali Miko Bichi while interacting with journalists in his office, in Bauchi.
Mainasara explained that the Eastern District has not ran a single train for seven years due to many challenges including insecurity and vandalisation of its track all over the country.
He said the District is also faced challenge of lack of functional tracks to move the locomotive but believes all things are possible.
The new District Manager said the award of the Eastern Line contract by the Federal Government from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri was a welcome development but since it is starting from Port Harcourt, and not in segment as many had anticipated, the district would initiate other projects while waiting for it to get to Bauchi.
“We have competent engineers and Head of Departments here in the North Eastern District and l don’t believe l will just sit in the office as a District Manager. but will start to think out of the box,” he said.
He said on resumption of duty, he along with the engineers and Management staff have inspected the tracks to see where can be accessible.
The District Manager said the major challenges are collapsed culverts, although most of the contracts are major ones that cannot be handled at the district, he has communicated to the headquarters.
“Within our own we can start with something and tbe engineers have started working on a track from Bauchi to Inkil, about five kilometres, in the meantime where we can be able to run an excursion train,” he disclosed.
Comrade Mainasara discloses that a rail bus which had been abandoned for over 20 years has been fixed as soon as he resuned two months ago and would be used for the excursion train for the children.
He said engineers in the district would inspect and work on the track with the plan of extending it up to Alkaleri soon.
“The moment we fix our tracks up to Alkaleri, believe me we will start to run our trains,” he said
