By Favour Nnabugwu
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Coperation (NRC), Engr. Fidet Okhiria promised to ensure that the mandate given him to serve is well delivered, following his reappointment as the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation.
Okhiria who visited the Idu rail Station President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Transport Rt Hon Rotimi Amaechi for the opportunity that was given him to serve his Country under the platform of the Nigeria Railway Co-operation.
‘Expressing his appreciation, he said, “‘I thank God and also the government for there support over the years. I am trying to do more than I have been doing before and I cant afford to throw away the mandate that was given to me by the President and the Minister.I will multiply what ever I have been doing before to ensure I leave a good legacy” .
He was particularly displeased non-adherence to social distancing while he frowned at the nonchalant attitude of some staffs and security operatives on ground
Staffs require orientation and I dont want to say discipline because discipline is either positive or negative.. we will try and plan to see how we can make it better both on our staff side and customer side, because there is no limit to which the staff can press”
“As a person, l try to adhere to social distancing in order to save my life , that is why I was talking to the traveller because he didn’t adhere to social distancing. when leave here i am going to to call my staff to know why the travelers are not adhering to social distancing .
“Its so disheartning that even with the presence of security operatives around , social distancing is still not enforced. we don’t expect the the directors to enforce social distancing , if not staff will suffer .we are going to ensure those managing them do their job”.
Okhiria also addressed the issue of E-ticketing, the Railway boss assured Nigerians especially users of the Idu train station that plans are on ground to work out the necessary modalities to ensure the E-ticketing becomes operational as soon as possible.
”The E-ticketing installation has commenced, with the last meeting that was held. by the end of the month , the first stage of people been able to buy ticket online will start, while we await the physical infastructure that is going to be put in place . we are working hard and also pressing and we think by month end we should be able to launch the E-ticketing platform and it will be functional”
‘According to him, ‘The programm of the train station is based on seven return trips, making it 14 a day, seven up and seven down. we are not doing the four trips except for wedenesday when we leave for maintenace. Couches have arrived, the diesel multiple units are heavier than about 150 ton and require special vehicle to move them”.
We have succeded in in moving the Locomotive to Abuja and we have also moved two two to Agbor and we hope by this weekend the two motorcave for the DMU’s will start their journey and it will take two weeks to get here. By November everything will be in place and seven return trips making 24 trips a day”.
Continuinng he stated, “Train scheduling is not an easy task, because if you dont do it well it can lead to accident. We dont want to interfere with the time table, Nigerians should be patient with us, before the first week of November we will get there .
