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By Fidelis Ugbomeh
State governors, particularly in the South West have been enjoined to partner with the private sector and Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to promote investment in construction of access roads and well-equipped container terminals along the railway corridor.
This is as long queues of articulated vehicles have continued to form various shapes into Apapa and Tin Can Island ports in a bid to load imported containerized goods as well as offload export goods and return empty containers.
Director of operations (Railway Desk), Bueno Logistics Limited, Mr. Paul Ndibe, who made this call in an exclusive interview with Daily Sun, said the private sector should take the initiative by constructing well-equipped container terminals near the train stations along the standard and narrow gauge railway corridors.
He sought support of state governments, especially Ogun and Oyo state governments, in the constriction of access roads to the railway terminals at Kajola/Papalanto, Abeokuta and Moniya railway terminals so as to enhance easy access of trucks and by extension reduce the current long queues of trucks waiting evacuate imports and exports in and out of from Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.
The operations director also advised importers and shipping companies to seek alternative modes of evacuating their imports to inland container depots within Lagos by rail and barges, instead of concentrating on the road mode as presently obtains.
According to him, “this can be achieved if shipping companies destined for Lagos review their documentations to include the option of moving containers by rail to the rail side terminals for easy access to trucks.”
Ndibe explained further that shipping companies are in a better position to advice importers from the port of origin on the best options to use in exiting their imports from the Apapa port while importers have a choice to make to either use rail mode to move their containers to inland container terminals at Iddo and Ebute-Metta through narrow or standard gauge railway lines for onward transfer by road to their various destination or completely rely on the road mode.
He posited that the use of alternative modes like rail and barges will to a large extent reduce waiting time, long queues, bumper to bumper movements and extortion usually associated with utilizing the road mode before accessing the port gate to evacuate imports and return empty containers respectively.
Ndibe averred that with the increasing number of goods imported into the country especially during this yelutide, containers can be evacuated by rail from A.P Miller terminal to container terminals at Iddo and Ebute-Metta Apapa by rail where trucks are stationed to move such consignments by road to their owners.
According to him empty containers could also be returned to the Apapa Port by rail after the consignments have been offloaded, while exports can as well be moved by rail to the port terminal through the service of Bueno Logistics, in partnership with Nigerian Railway Corporation.
