Following the failure of former President Buhari’s administration to start container haulage on the $1.5 billion Lagos-Ibadan Rail Line, expectations are high that the newly inaugurated government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be able to break the jinx two years after.
Inaugurated on June 10, 2021, the 157 kilometers rail line started passenger services from Lagos to Moniya in Ibadan five days after the inauguration but has failed to support cargo evacuation from Apapa, which was one of the major aims of building the rail network.
BusinessDay findings show that Lagos-Ibadan Rail Line was built at the peak of the protracted traffic congestion on the roads leading to Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports in Lagos due to the long queue of trucks and tankers accessing Apapa Port and other private jetties in Apapa for the lifting of oil and gas products.
Then, port users were hopeful that the construction and completion of the rail line will come with some measure of relief for the port industry if a greater percentage of the import and export cargo are moved via rail in and out of the port.
Two years down the line, that dream has remained a wish as over 90 percent of cargo from Apapa Port is still being moved via the road.
Augustine Arase, the Lagos district manager of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) told BusinessDay on the phone, that every discussion concerning container haulage on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge has been put on hold due to the political transition of power from the past government to the new government.
According to him, container haulage via rail on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Railway has not started but the NRC is positive that it will commence operations soon.
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“We are still in transition mode and a lot of things have been put on hold. We are watching and hopeful that when the new government settles, discussions on the interest earlier expressed by the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) to begin container haulage by rail on the newly constructed Lagos-Ibadan Standard Railway will continue,” he explained.
He however said that the Corporation is still moving containers skeletally via the old narrow-gauge track.
Further findings show that though the narrow gauge is currently functioning, the impact remains insignificant owing to irregular port trips and a small number of containers moved per trip.
For instance, about 38 boxes of 20-foot containers or 19 boxes of 40-foot containers are moved using the rail wagon per trip and the wagon comes once or twice in a week.
Meanwhile, Olufunmilayo Olotu, former Port Manager of Lagos Port Complex (LPC), told journalists that rail is crucial and that the present government needs to improve on what the immediate past administration did concerning cargo evacuation by rail.
“The previous administration started a very good rail project that should not be abandoned but rather should be sustained so there will be cargo evacuation via road, rail and water. That is when Nigeria can say that it is a hub in the West African region,” Olotu said.
On his part, Cajetan Agu, the director of Consumer Affairs of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, said in a recent meeting with APM Terminals management, that rail linkage is very crucial to the port industry as it will help drive the inland dry port initiative of the Council.
Agu charged the management of the APM Terminals, operator of the Apapa Container Terminal, to work with the Nigerian Railway Corporation towards ensuring that the railway is used as an alternative means of evacuating cargo from the port.
He said the terminal operator must ensure that the issues hindering the final linkage of the newly constructed standard rail line to the Apapa Port Quay wall are resolved in earnest.
“The inland dry port in Kaduna is working and the one in Funtua and Kano have been commissioned but the only way they can be effective is by using rail to evacuate cargoes to their destination,” he said.
Fredrick Klinke, country manager of APM Terminals, said that rail is an extremely important initiative because it is a necessary addition to the traditional evacuation of cargo by land.
According to him, rail is cost-efficient for the shippers to move cargo from the port and also into the port, adding that the terminal is always ready to accommodate the rail.
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