FGN SURE TO COMMISSION LAGOS- IBADAN OPERATIONS BY JANUARY, 2021.

….As Amaechi charges APM Terminals to cooperate with Contractor to deliver Apapa Railline

Oru Leonard

The Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has said the January date for the commissioning of Apapa Extention 2 railway alongside that of Lagos-Ibadan remains sacrosanct, hence the appeal for cooperation from all stakeholders.

Amaechi said this at the APM Terminal control room, where he and other stakeholders, including the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) Managing Director Hadiza Bala Usman, the NRC Board of Directors Chairman, Engr. Al-Hassan Musa, the NRC Managing Director, Engr. Fidet Okhiria, the contractor and the TEAM engineers, had a brief meeting to discuss issues relating to the delays in getting the rail into Apapa.

“We have already told the President, that we are commissioning in January. Now, I am working towards that time. We must achieve that time”, he said.

The Minister further said, “the moment we begin movement of cargo from Lagos to Ibadan, then the Lagos gridlock will reduce drastically and that’s my objective in January”.

He then charged APM Terminals to allow China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) the Contractor handling the Ebuta Meta – Apapa seaports railway extension access to ensure its completion by January, 2021.

According to him, “We went to APM to tell them to increase the pace of work, we are determined to commission in January. If they think we will commission Ebute Metta to Ibadan, we will not do that, we will commission the entire projects.

“I agree there are two contracts, first from Ebute Metta to Ibadan and the second one which we awarded later is Ebute Metta to Apapa to the Seaport, to decongest the Apapa seaport and reduce gridlock and to do that, we have to get cargoes on the track.

Earlier, the Country Manager of APM Terminal, Klaus Laursen, showed the Minister the monitoring station which gives real time information on what is happening in all sections of the terminal, saying ” the essence is to have it here to control and monitor cargoes coming in and going out of the terminal.”

According to him, they decided to introduce one in Nigeria as it is the trend in Shanghai and other global towns where similar operations take place.

While acknowledging the fact that the terminal is not where it is supposed to be, Laursen, said they were putting the right facilities in place to encourage productivity.

It is believed that movement of cargo from Lagos to Ibadan will drastically reduce the Lagos gridlock.