By Mu’azu Abubakar Albarkawa, Kaduna
The Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Zaria would commence the conversion of petrol-powered vehicles to autogas to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal and reduce transportation costs.
Dr. Bayero Salih-Farah, Director-General of the institute who disclosed this in Zaria during a media interaction said the conversion would be carried out across its offices in the six geopolitical zone of the country.
He said the institute has been working on the project for the over a year, where it built workshops across the country, staying that in the next two to three weeks the conversion process would commence in earnest.
Farah noted that the project when fully implemented wil save Nigerians 40% of their energy cost.
The DG said the institute was also working in partnership with some manufacturers of the conversion kits which would be used at its workshops to enable Nigerians have cheaper conversion from PMS to auto gas.
“We have sensitized relevant stakeholders across the country at different fora on the need for Nigerians to migrate from the use of PMS to gas.
“Gas is very cheap than petrol, it is also cleaner and convenient; Nigerians would be able to save a lot of money when they converted their vehicle from petrol to auto gas.
“The cost of transport would come down drastically because the money required to refill a tank using an auto gas would be 40 per cent lower than the money required filling a tank using petrol,’’ he said.
The director- general added that the use of the auto gas would reduce substantial environmental pollution in the country.
He, therefore, appealed to Nigerians to take advantage of the initiative.
In related development, the Director General said the institute has concluded plan to partner with the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA) on knowledge sharing to the needs of some of the major institutes projects.
He added that the institute under his stewardship was also working to elevate the standard of NITT to enable it achieve the vision of becoming a leading transport and logistics institute in Africa.
To achieve this, Salih-Farah said has upgraded and construct new structures, establish new centers across the country; upgraded, renovated, furnished and equipped many facilities in the institute.
He said the facelift of the institutes was also aimed at stemming the rising cases of injuries and death resulting from road traffic accidents.