‘Nigeria needs international standard in railway projects’

The Federal government has been urged to explore international standards in its efforts at bringing the Nigerian railways infrastructure back to live while the citizens must also develop ethics of boarding train.

Director Civil/New Lines, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Anthony Onyokoko stated this at the 2018 yearly dinner and induction of new members organised by the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Apapa Branch.

He said maintaining international standard in the industry would help to ensure a stable construction plan that would stand the test of time without unnecessary regular shut down for repairs.

He said, “As the world evolves, it is hard to maintain railways project but keeping to a standard will help ensure a stable construction plan. There are European, American, Canadian, Chinese standards. So it is not inappropriate if we give them the contracts to develop your railway system.

However, they will be giving some conditions that we have to construct our railway system in accordance with their standard. If you go to China, they are very much developed in the rail systems. So it is not a bad thing for Nigeria to adopt the Chinese standard of the railway system”.

“The only thing is that there are multiplicity of standards; what we need to do as engineers is to adapt with these standard and see how we can come out of having too many transport problems. We have been to china, to see their industries and facilities and every component of the railway track has undergone several tests. Haven witnessed the test, I believe we have to adapt to different standards if we want a flawless operation”, Onyokoko said.

According to him, the challenges posed by the need to improve the Nigerian railways has also thrown open various opportunities for Public Private partnership in the development of the corporation’s assets.

He also lauded the Nigerian railway corporation saying that they have make progress over the years. “I have live in Lagos between 1987 to 1998 and I never knew anything about the Nigerian railway, but thanks to the government for giving Nigerians a faster way to transport our goods” he said.

He advised Nigerians to learn the ethics of boarding a train stressing that by so doing; it would stop numerous cases of passengers hanging on the trains, which is very dangerous.

The Chairman of Nigerian Society of Engineers, Apapa branch, Sunny Ejeje commended the government for launching new innovations on the railway project, saying the government is working diligently to satisfy humans’ insatiable needs. He called on government to ensure that general interest is retained over political interests for effective service delivery in the country.

Ejeje noted that the establishment of the new properly planned railways would bring about greater synergy between the engineering bodies and the government.