NRC: I Will Reverse North-Eastern District Railway Vandalism, Insurgency- New RDM

The newly appointed Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Railway District Manager (RDM), North Eastern District, Aliyu Mainasara, has promised to reverse the insurgency and vandalisation of railway tracks that hampered railway transportation in the district.

Mainasara explained that the North Eastern District, which consists of 32 stations spread across five states from 222 in Plateau State, passing through, Gombe, Buni Yadi in Yobe and terminating in Maiduguri, Borno State, has not run a single train for seven years due to insecurity and vandalism.

He said insecurity and activities of vandals have left the North Eastern District with a lack of functional tracks to move locomotives for years.

The new Railway District Manager also observed that the commencement of the Eastern Line contract from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, rather than in segments, means the District must come up with workable ideas and strategies while awaiting work to reach Maiduguri.

The new RDM promised to promote teamwork and staff welfare as well as initiate projects that will keep trains running in the meantime while waiting for the work that has begun in Port Harcourt to get to Bauchi.

“We have competent engineers and Head of Departments here in the North Eastern District office 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 assured.

Mainasara, who has hit the ground running, revealed that on the assumption of office in March, he along with the engineers and management staff inspected the tracks in the 32 stations under his jurisdiction to ascertain which areas can be accessible.

He said other challenges he observed since taking over in the district include collapsed culverts.

The RDM stated that although most ongoing contracts were major ones that cannot be handled at the district level, he promised communicated to the challenges to the NRC headquarters, praising the leadership style of the Managing Director and expressing optimism that the MD style of leadership ad commitment, all initiatives being proposed in the district would come to fruition.

“Within our own we can start with something, and the 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.

Mainasara, who said his mantra is “nothing is impossible”, revealed that a rail bus that had been abandoned for over 20 years has been fixed, and would be used for the proposed excursion train for children.

He said engineers in the district would inspect and work on the track from Bauchi to Inkil with the possibility of extending it up to Alkaleri.

“The moment we fix our tracks up to Alkaleri, believe me, we will start to run our train, ” he assured.