Nigerian Railway begins petroleum freight from Lagos to Osun
By The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is to commence movement of petroleum products from Lagos to Osun next week, it was learnt yesterday.
Making the disclosure in Abuja recently, Jerry Oche, Railway District Manager (RDM) for Lagos state, said the project should have commenced earlier, but expressed optimism that the project would take off next week, adding that the district has been moving other products that the for sometimes now.
According to him, “We do imports and exports. Imports could be manufactured products or products meant to be used by industries or companies. We have the bonded and the unbonded. Bounded are the ones going to be bonded terminal. We have it in Kano, Kaduna and normally customs would go to that place’’.
For the ones that are not bonded, the customs do all the checks in APMT before they are pulled out. For those that are not bonded, the destinations are Ajuba depot, EBJ, Ijoko and Omi Adio in Oyo which was started recently.
The Nigeria Railways also has exports from Ijoko, EBJ and Ajuba going into the port. Those ones would be inspected at the port and shipped out and some of which are agricultural products and metals.
Fertilizers are also moved by train up-north to Minna, Kano, Kaduna, and NRC has recently started returning animal field from the north. Container loads of fertilizers and animal feeds are also moved by train to Lagos and its environs.
Freights also moved from the Apapa port include shiploads of pipes for Osun state water project which has been on-going for three months now. a whole ship load.
For containers, the NRC official said the corporation moves we two trains that can carry 20 feet and 40 feet loads of containers daily. ‘’We have 20 feet containers and 40 feet containers. If we are doing 20 feet, each wagon is two. Each of our train set is 19 wagons. So for 20 feet, we are thinking of 38 containers while for 40 feet, we are thinking of 19.
Jerry Oche disclosed that, at the moment, NRC is only concentrating more on diesel, not PMS because the high risk that is involved.
For all the AGO trains, NRC has what is called the runner wagons which is between the locomotives and the first tank wagon. The runner wagon is always a flat wagon filled with sound or stone so that, if the tanker catches fire, it won’t cross over to the locomotive and if the locomotive catches fire, it won’t cross over to the tanker and these tanks are pressurized.
‘’The runner wagons are not the usual type of tank that would explode if it falls. It can run during the day and night and where there is expansion, it takes off itself with the support of a releasing valve and it is completely sealed. Even if it falls, it is not going to spill.” He stated.
MIKE OCHONMA
The post Nigerian Railway begins petroleum freight from Lagos to Osun appeared first on BusinessDay : News you can trust.