• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

NRC deploys 18 narrow gauge side wagons to ICNL

Railway

In a renewed effort to decongest Apapa port of stacked containers, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) last Monday took delivery of 18 units of open side wagons that will run on the existing for narrow gauge line.

The wagons imported from China which is to be used container traffic and general cargo movement will be deployed immediately to Inland Container Nigeria Limited (ICNL), Kaduna to help decongest the container-infested Apapa port.

In telephone chat with BusinessDay last Monday evening, Jerry Oche, an engineer and railway district manager (RDM) of the Nigerian Railways Corporation, Lagos district said that, each of the deployed 18 wagons has the capacity to freight two units of 20 feet containers or one unit of the 40 feet containers.

According to the Jerry Oche who did not disclose the value of the wagons said, ‘’The 18 wagons that the NRC has received now can freight 18 numbers of 40 feet containers or 36 numbers of 20 feet containers and can in the meantime do one round trip per week from Lagos to Kaduna’’.

Recall that just last year, the planned refurbishment of the narrow gauge line suffered a setback when General Electric (GE) announced its withdrawal as the lead concessioner of the Nigerian railways in consortium with other international industry partners and handed it over the lead role to Transnet SOC Limited in line with its strategy to exit the transportation business.

Agreements GE reached with the Nigerian government “are now being negotiated by Transnet and its consortium partners” including SinoHydro of China and APM Terminals, the Boston, the company said.

Over the years, the problems at Apapa and other ports such as Calabar and Port Harcourt have been a headache for successive administrations, which have failed to fix decaying infrastructure, reduce stifling red tape and tackle corruption.

Terminal operators, including APM Terminals, a unit of Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk A/S, rely on generators because power cuts are so frequent. But it’s worsened in recent years, especially at Apapa.

Crumbling roads have all but ground trucks to a halt. Once they do manage to enter, drivers and businesses have to contend with a plethora of customs, immigration and security agents before they can pick up containers.

In comparison, it can take 20 days to clear products, compared with 48 hours in neighbouring Benin and Ghana, according to the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

The cost of moving a container from Apapa to other parts of Lagos has soared to as much as 700,000 naira ($1,930) from about 150,000 naira two years ago as trucking firms put up their prices to make up for the delays, according to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC).

 

MIKE OCHONMA