The N500 million Safe Train Control (STC) project of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), which is almost completed, seems to have been abandoned, reports ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE.
The Nigerian Railway Corporation’s Safe Train Control System (STCS) is rotting away at its headquarters in Lagos.
The corporation’s Managing Director (MD), Mr Fidet Okhiria, and other top managers are not willing to speak on.
When it was unveiled by NRC’s former MD Oluseyi Sijuwade, the system was said to be a critical component of the NRC Master plan aimed at synchronising operations of the narrow gauge and ensuring that trains on its entire network can travel safely.
The project, said to be about 50 percent completed, about five years ago, reportedly cost the Goodluck Jonathan administration N500 million. It was financed by the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), the special vehicle instrument used by the former administration to address the nation’s infrastructure deficit in critical sectors.
Under the SURE-P, created following the partial removal of fuel subsidy, the Federal Government diverted its share of the re-investible funds into critical programmes, chief among which, was railway modernisation.
The STCS was part of the projects executed under the Railway Project Implementation Unit (RPIU) of SURE-P for which over N30 billion was released.
At its unveiling, all functional locomotives on the Western line, which runs the lucrative Lagos-Kano-Lagos shuttle, had been covered. What remains, it was learnt, was the connection of Eastern Line Port Harcourt to Maiduguri to the system. The latter, it was learnt, was stalled by the insecurity in Borno, though the government had been able to secure and launched train operations from Port-Harcourt through Enugu and up to Gombe, connecting the trains on that line to the computerised system was said to be captured only in the second phase. Even then, the exact figure of the contract was shrouded in mystery.
The STC, which functions like a Control Tracking Centre, was to become the operational base of the train network. From the centre, at NRC’s Ebute-Metta headquarters, Lagos, it was easy to monitor by colour coding train movements across the entire network from its Iddo office, to Ijoko, Dagbolu, Abeokuta, Ewekoro, to Ibadan, down to Kafanchan and Kano. Same would ultimately be done on the Eastern line once the insecurity abates.
With the assistance of electronic gadgets already installed on the locomotives, trains can be controlled and monitored. It eases and obliterated human errors in manual direction of the trains. From the centre, onboard communication becomes easier with the drivers, thereby reducing the infrastructural challenges of network failure as a result of communication via the global satellite system.
Much more, the speed of any locomotive can be regulated from the centre, in case the affected driver failed to heed to code directive to decelerate.
The project, which was part of the railway’s modernisation effort, started in 2013. It took about 10 months to achieve the 50 percent completion.
New deal
On August 6, 2015, Sijuwade, unveiled the STC installed and manned by a South African consortium, Ansaldo Gear Group and A3&O Limited.
Sijuwade explained to reporters then that at the touch of a button in the control room, the corporation could monitor real-time, movements of all trains on its tracks, with the aid of the On Board Computers (OBC) installed on its locomotives.
He said: “Before now, we relied on GSM phones to communicate with our drivers. If there is any breakdown or any accident or any other challenge, our drivers would usually communicate with the engineers via phone. We were never able to monitor all our operations at a glance. This has always come with its own drawbacks as our response time to emergencies had always been negatively affected. You would appreciate it more if you realise that most of our rail assets are in remote inaccessible locations across the country. We have been coping with this challenge for almost a century, since railway started in Nigeria. This will stop with the deployment of this equipment.
“Among other features, the equipment enables us to monitor and control train speed, to avoid derailment and collision, and also enhance fuel economy. It promotes efficiency and ensures adherence to journey time by drivers; minimises damage to tracks and other infrastructure. It has the capacity to increase frequency of train movement, with consequent increase in revenue,” he added.
When it was unveiled, the Control Room was not fully completed, but the corporation had engaged some engineers to be trained for the technology transfer when the project was completed.
In February 2016, the Joint National Assembly Committees on Land Transport, led by Senator Gbenga Ashafa and Senator Shehu Sani, inspected the NRC Control Room. Okhiria and the the corporation’s Director of Operations, Mr. Niyi Ali, explained the project to the lawmakers.
Okhiria, speaking on the project yesterday, assured that the project has not been abandoned. He however disclosed that lack of funds had stalled its implementation.
He disclosed that NRC would need $4 billion to complete the project, adding that the Federal Government had approved $1 billion last year and that the contractor would be returning to site soon to resume work.
“Before they left, they had installed the on-board computers connected with 17 locomotives, but the completion and duration is driven by availability of funds. We have received 80 per cent of the equipment needed and they would soon be returning,” he said.
Checks revealed that the centre was last opened shortly after the Senators’ visit.
Not only had all the expatriates returned to their countries, other workers recruited from across the NRC crop of workers have returned to their former departments. The hitherto-busy centre remained desolate, with the Satellite installation with which its operations were hooked to its broad rail network vandalised.
Commenting in the development, the Managing Director of First Rit Nigeria Limited, Transport and Logistics firm, Mr Eric Umezurike said the STC was the first time the Federal Government’s corporation would demonstrate its commitment to safety on the rail are captured real time.
“It was gratifying that the government attempted to modernise train services by controlling the movement and other activities on the aging locomotive engines,” Umezurike said.
Another logistics expert Morayo Daniels said there were fears that the cost of the completion of the project might have spiralled as a result of inflationary trend over the past five years. He wondered why the government would abandoned a project that aimed at improving on the safety of all locomotives on its tracks across all the two networks.
