Economic hardship: NEDC to deploy 10,000 solar-powered tricycles, taxi, buses in Northeast

AHMED MARI,  Maiduguri

To ease cost of transportation,  tackle challenges of climate change, global warming and in line with President Bola Tinubu commitment to safeguard the environment, the Northeast Development Commission (NEDC) is to deploy 10, 000 solar powered Electrical Tricycles, several other   taxis and 40 seater buses across the six states of the region to ease hardship faced by the masses and maintain clean environment.

Interacting  with the members of the National union of Road Transport Workers ( NuRTW) and Nigeria Association of Transport  Owners (NATO)   at the NEDC headquarters, Maiduguri on Wednesday, the Managing Director of the NEDC, Alhaji Goni Alkali said ” due to climate change, global warming and hardship faced by our people as a result of cost of transportation,. We call you to deliberate on the issues of alternative sources of Transport to reduce cost of transportation and safeguard our environment.”.

” As a critical stakeholders in the transport business, we want to have your inputs on CNG and E-mobility but we believe we in the Northeast we have the comparative advantage of solar that was why we are considering 3 options of E-Tricycles, E-Taxis and E- buses”, the MD added..

Alhaji Alkali said ” the introduction of the  tricycles, taxis and 40 seater buses will help in  not bringing down transport fare but safeguard the environment and create wealth along the value chain. These tricycles, taxis and buses if fully charged will take someone 200 to 250 kilometers and will be recharged within an hour”.

“” We are going to deploy 10,0000 E-Tricycles across the 6 states of the Northeast, we will be doing that in 3  phases starting with 2,000 to 5,000 in the first phase, we are as well going to train our staff, the drivers and transport owners on the operations, maintenance and management of the e- tricycles,taxis and buses, as well as construct 5 megawatts to 10 megawatts charging points and , repairing  facilities at designated areas within the region. Already we have commenced the construction of the facilities”, the MD said..

He said the tricycles, taxis and  the buses will commence operation  with intra city operations  before embarking on inter city operations, stressing that the commission is not unaware of the challenges that might be associated with the E-mobility but the Solar powered is far better than CNG.

He assured that the commission is determined to deliver on it’s mandate as an intervention agency.

Speaking, at the occasion,the NATO Secretary Gombe state, Musa Inuwa who commended the commission for the initiatives, urged the commission to consider deploying 18 seater buses, as some of the areas cannot accommodates 40 seater buses.

In his remarks, a member of the NURTW from the state called on the commission to also consider deployment of electric trucks to ease transportation of good.

Also, the NUTRW,Secretary,j Bauchi state, Comrade Ismail Umar urged the  commission to also look into the option of introducing CNG buses .