In a bid to reduce the man-hour lost on daily basis as a result of the perennial gridlock being witnessed at Apapa ports, the federal government is set to launch 100 wagons and 6 locomotives to aid in evacuation of cargo by rail.
The Minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who disclosed this while delivering a keynote address to mark this year’s World Maritime Day in Lagos said that the nation’s narrow gauge would become operational before December.
Amaechi observed that once the narrow gauge starts working, government would insist that importers and their agents use trains ti evacuate their cargoes from the ports.
He said,”We are bringing before December 100 wagons, we are launching before December 6 locomotives. Initially, the guys that will do it, GE said they will pick it to Ebute-meta and trucks can pick it from Ebute-meta off and I think from findings, that will not work. Reasons, we are doing gradual transfer of cargoes to Ebute-meta and I drove past there yesterday, with what I saw on the road means that if we now carry out massive transfer of cargo from Apapa port to Ebute-meta, you close that place.
“So, the right thing to do and I am going to tell them when we start our meeting next week, all cargoes for Lagos should be discharged at Papalanto and all other cargoes, if you are going to Kano or other places, convey it to Kano directly, it’s just that those who own the goods should be ready to pay for the train services because GE is not here as our friends, they are here as investors. That will start before December and we are doing that with NPA, we are doing that with the railways”.
The Minister noted that government had made other achievements in the area of the Nigerian Ports Authority by reviewing its agreement with the terminal operators as well as reducing the time operators waste at the seaport even as he said that the port access roads which appeared to be the major problem was receiving attention at the moment.
He further hinted that the federal government was indigenizing the process of working at the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) adding that before now, virtually everything in the agency was awarded as contract.
“I have told the MD of NIWA, it is your idea not my idea, he came back and said , we can result River Niger and dredge it, not the capital dredging, by using our own dredger. We tried it last year and I told them to put it in their budget the money to buy the bigger dredger so that it could be faster. I saw that in the budget this week as I was going through the budget”, he said.
He added that in line with government’s policy of outsourcing management of some of its assets, efforts were in to outsource the management of the Onitsha River port and that of Baru when completed even as he said that the same gesture would be extended to Lokoja and Oguta ports if ever completed so that government could allow the private sector to be involved.
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