The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) will soon commence the transportation of cattle across the country by rail. NRC Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, disclosed this on Channels Television on Wednesday, July 10.
He said the movement of cows and other goods would resume with the Warri-Itakpe route. The NRC, famous for passenger traffic, had in 2017 suspended the movement of cattle by train following technical hitches.
However, Okhiria said in one or two months, herders would be able to move their cattle on the Warri-Itakpe train services. Itakpe is a town in Kogi State in North Central Nigeria while Warri is located in Delta State in the South-South geopolitical zone of the country.
He said the NRC would modernise the movement of goods in the country “so that when they come by road from the north, they can move them by rail to South-South Warri”.
Okhiria said the NRC has brought in some wagons that can mobilise livestock and they are being assembled in the Kajola area of Oyo State in the South-West.
“We’ve built 15 wagons for livestock and maybe in the next month or two months, they would be deployed from Itakpe to Warri to drive the economy,” the NRC boss stated.
He said investment in railways should be for the social and economic benefits of the people and not profit-oriented in naira and kobo.
“You are not developing transportation because you want to make profit in terms of naira and kobo but the profit will come indirectly if we can move goods and link cities” he said