As the cost of evacuating goods from the seaports by rail mode of transport continues to increase, Managing Director of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Engr. Fidet Okhiria, has alleged that special rates charged by terminal operators at the ports was responsible for low level of using rail mode by importers to evacuate goods from the ports.
He made this remark recently in Lagos during a sensitisation summit on limitations to rail transportation of cargoes through narrow gaude railway line from the seaports in Nigeria.
The NRC boss expressed concerns that despite obvious advantages of the use of rail mode over the road to evacuate goods on narrow gauge, importers have been discouraged from due to extra charges (special charges) imposed by terminal operators which eventually made use of rail more expensive to evacuate goods from the ports.
He said that the use of rail should not attract extra charges as being imposed by the terminal operators but should be cheaper to encourage its use among importers and exporters.
Okhiria enjoined terminal operators to provide an enabling environment for importers and exporters to ensure goods are evacuated cheaply by rail in and out of the ports.
According to him,”It is not good to be charging special rates at the terminals and this is the major hindrance that is not encouraging customers to use rail mode to evacuate cargoes”.
Okhiria said the use of rail will reduce port congestion and traffic on our roads even as goods can be delivered properly and cheaper to their various destinations.
However, Managing Director, First Rit Nigeria Limited, Mr. Eric Umezurike attributed the extra levies charged by terminal terminal operators to double handling of containers offloaded from vessels into narrow gauge wagons awaiting loading by terminal operators.
He noted that based on the design of the qua apron the distance between vessels berthed (on anchor) at the terminals and wagons parked on the narrow gauge railway line inside the ports is such that containers cannot be offloaded directly by crane into the wagons.
He explained further that the distance between vessels berthed and rail line requires that mobile fork lifts owned and maintained by terminal operators are deployed to move such containers into the parked wagons at extra cost.
“After dropping containers with aid of cranes on board vessels at the terminals, the terminal operators provide mobile forklifts to load such containers into the parked wagons at extra costs”, Umezurike declared.
Umezurike who is a stakeholer in the maritime sector pointed out that the extra levies imposed by terminal operators is for double handling service provided by using their facilities to load imported containerised goods and cargoes into waiting wagons on the narrow gauge railway line.
However, to surmount these challenges, the Nigerian Shippers’Council and the NRC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) as part of efforts to improve rail transportation of cargoes from seaports to the hinterlands.
Red Line
Ahead of the commercial train service from Oyingbo to Agbado, the Lagos State government has through Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority, has continued to barricade the railway tracks along the corridor so as to discourage encroachment into the tracks when operations commence soon.
Managing Director of Nigerian Railway Corporation Engr. Fidet Okhiria dropped this hint recently in Lagos at a workshop titled “ From Exclusive to Concurrent List: Matters Arising And Lagos State Example”.
He noted that prior to passage of the removal of rail transportation from exclusive to concurrent list by the 9th Assembly, Lagos state has been granted ‘track access’ to use the Agbodo-Oyingbo standard gauge railway corridor for commercial service in return for a token.
Okhiria noted that decision to barricade the entire Oyingbo-Agbado railway corridor was to secure the railway tracks from encroachment by passersby.