The federal government, Thursday disclosed that over 60 per cent cost of diesel was being saved from the retrofitting process of locomotive engines in the rail modernisation system in Nigeria.
The minister of Transportation, Senator Sa’id Alkali added that the exercise, called “retrofitting” was achieved with a 30 percent ratio of diesel and 70 percent of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) usage.
Speaking on the sidelines shortly after inspection progress on the converted train in Kubwa Station, Abuja, Alkali noted that the milestone achieved in the conversion of NRC locomotives to run on diesel/LNG would further save the cost of running the commercial trains.
He said: “We will reduce the cost of using LNG drastically. Though, the locomotives were using diesel 100 per cent. The idea is by the time you use LNG 70 per cent, the cost of running the locomotives will drastically be reduced.
“I am assuring Nigerians that we are going to enforce that. By the time all our locomotives are retrofitted, certainly the cost of transportation must drop drastically.”
On the capacity to sustain the project, he said, Nigeria has the capacity to sustain the project due to its abundance of natural gas.
He, however, declined the possibility of the retrofitted locomotive’s running 100 per cent on LNG, saying, “you convert to LNG 100% because it is a heavy engine.”