The Minister of Transportation, Saidu Alkali, on Tuesday inaugurated the first cargo movement from the Lagos-Ibadan rail corridor.
The tour which kicked off at the Ebute Meta station before proceeding to Apapa for the launch, then travelled to Ibadan using the 157 km rail corridor is the Minister’s first your since assuming office.
Three coaches of 30 wagons were loaded as the inaugural freight movement was kicked off.
According to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), it would start with three coaches per day with its Managing Director (MD) noting that the corporation had the capacity to scale up the numbers.
This effort is expected to decongest the Apapa port as shippers moved 92.28 percent of Nigeria’s total exports and 60.77 percent of imports through the facility in the first quarter of 2022 (Q1’22).
The Nigerian Port Authority in a post via its verified X handle on Tuesday said, it had “always clamoured for different modes of cargo evacuation out of the ports to lessen the burden on road transportation. Alternatives are rail and barge operations.”
“We are excited about the launch of the single-gauge rail linking Apapa Port to Ibadan.”
It added that “in one year, the narrow-gauge rail received: 1,886 TEUs of cargo deliveries; 3,640 TEUs of export cargo; 262 TEUs of empty.
“With this SGR, cargo evacuation would be faster and more efficient.”
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