The China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) has blamed ill luck for the malfunctioning locomotives it recently built for Nigerians.
CRCC after-sales Manager, Su Zhiguang, who heads the maintenance team on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line, was quoted to have said that the trains, which arrived in Nigeria in January, were test run and certified ready for deployment in China.
At least three passenger trains had broken down after suffering mechanical failures in quick succession over the last two weeks, leaving hundreds stranded along the dangerous Abuja-Kaduna tracks.
A video, which went viral on November 26, showed passengers aboard a Kaduna-Abuja train voicing their displeasure, shortly after the locomotive broke down in dark hours along a route that is widely dreaded for kidnapping and other violent crimes.
When asked why the trains (CDD5c2 2701 and CDD5c2 2702 models) were frequently breaking down only a few months after they were commissioned, the CRCC engineer said: “It’s hard to say, maybe bad luck because the trains were newly built and certified okay by our company in China before they were sent to Nigeria in January.” “In my many years of experience in after-sales service, this situation is the first I’m seeing,” Mr. Zhiguang further said.
In China and other countries, we don’t have so many problems (mechanical faults). We’ve built trains that are still under our warranty and functioning for several years. There shouldn’t be too many problems with new locomotives,” he added.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) had published late June that $3.121 billion Chinese loans are project-tied to about 11 rail projects across the country.
