NIGERIA: The first five of 25 GE Transportation diesel locomotives have been delivered to Nigerian Railway Corp, the supplier announced on February 5. The rest will arrive in the second half of the year.

The order for the C25 EMPD locomotives to haul both freight and passenger trains was placed under an agreement signed by the Nigerian Ministry of Transport in May 2009. They are being built in Brazil by GE Transportation South America, with 7FDL engines of 2 500 hp supplied from the Grove City plant in the USA. GE said similar locomotives are in service in South Africa, but the Nigerian locomotives are designed to suit the axleloads and clearances on NRC's 3 505 km single track 1 067 mm gauge network .

'This represents an important step in GE Transportation's entry into the Nigerian marketplace', said GE Transportation President & CEO Lorenzo Simonelli. 'GE experts performed an extensive analysis on Nigeria's narrow gauge railway network, haulage requirements and traffic patterns to determine the best-fit locomotive.'