The federal government said at the weekend that the perennial traffic gridlock on the ever busy Apapa-Oshodi expressway will begins to ease down by January 2021 when cargoes from the Apapa seaport are put on the rail track and transported to Ibadan where trucks can pick them for onward delivery to their different locations.
The assurance is premised on the completion of the ongoing rail modernization and expansion from Ebute-Metta to Apapa seaport by January next year.
The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi hinted that the President, Muhammadu Buhari will commission the rail project unfailingly in January 2021 and urged stakeholders to collaborate with the contractor China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) to ensure the timely completion of the project within the time frame.
Speaking at the APM Terminals yard in Apapa where he began an inspection tour of the progress of work on the rail track on Saturday, Mr Ameachi said he has informed the President of the completion of the project of the project and will approach the President office to choose a date for the exercise today (Monday).
The Minister told officials of APM Terminals that “Time is of paramount importance to us to complete this rail. I have already told the President that we will commission the rail in January, I am working toward that time and we must achieve all we outlined to meet with the time frame because the president is aware.”
By Monday (today) I am going to go to his office to give them a date. I will access what is on ground tomorrow and when we finish, on Monday I will approach the president office and inform them that on this particular date in January, we can proceed with the commissioning.
He added that “We cannot commission the Ebute-Metta to Ibadan end and come back to do that of Ebute-Metta to apapa later, what is critical for us is that we must find a solution to the gridlock. The moment we begin to move the cargoes from the seaport to Ibadan, the pressure on the Lagos road will reduce drastically and that is our objective in January.”
Also, Country Manager of APM Terminals, Klaus Laursen showed the Minister the company’s monitoring station he says gives real time information on happenings in all the sections of the terminal which he explained enables it to control and monitor cargoes coming in and going out of the terminal.
Laursen said that the firm introduced the high tech technology into Nigeria Port operations as it is the practice in major port cities in Asia, Europe and other developed countries.
