Mr Fidet Okhiria, the
Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has said that the
corporation would begin free train ride service from Itakpe to Warri.
Okhiria said on Thursday
while inspecting the ongoing construction of train terminal at Ujevwu community
in Delta, that the free ride will be for one month.
According to him, the 202
kilometres train journey will connect many communities and improve social and
economic life of the people.
“NRC will start free train
ride along Agbhor-Itakpe corridor for a month to test run the service.
“Government wants to
provide good service so that goods and services can be affordable for the
communities.
“We are not going to limit
ourselves to passengers alone or to township service but also transport goods
and services,” he said.
The managing director said
that the rail service would complement road transport to enhance movement of
goods and services in the state.
Okhiria said that seven new
coaches train will transport over 400 passengers on a trip from Itakpe to Warri
on daily basis
He advised the residents to
make proper use of the opportunity to enhance their social and economic life.
The managing director said
youths in the communities would also be employed to maintain the tracks and in
other services.
Mr Alfred Ketekpe, the
Secretary Ujevwu Community in Warri, thanked the NRC for the gesture and urged
the corporation to provide walk access road to the train terminal.
The Secretary also said
that the communities were facing the challenges of power outage urging NRC to
come to their aid.
He begged the corporation
to carry the youths in the communities along in the recruitment process to curb
high rate of unemployment.
“We need light in these our
communities, because no light, no school and we also need job for our youths,”
he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) reports that the Itakpe-Warri train service would serve over 1,000
passengers daily on its test run service for one month.
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