Senate Committee on Marine Transport Monday in Lagos gave directive to the promoters of the $1.6 billion Lekki deep seaport in Lagos, to ensure the inclusion and linkage of the port to the national rail line to ease movement of cargo.
The senators, who expressed worry over the persistent gridlock around the nation’s major economic gateways in Apapa, said it was only well built and managed rail system that would ensure that the problems of bad road and its corresponding impact on cargo and human movement would be eliminated.
Binta Garba, a member of the committee, who were on oversight function in ports in Lagos, emphasised the need to include efficient use of rail line in the movement of cargo and human, as traffic around the Lekki axis was expected to grow in the future as the port gained the needed traction after completion.
Garba, who expressed dissatisfaction over the omission of rail line in the whole port project, warned that Nigerians and the economy would not be put into same fate as the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports, always surrounded by gridlocks and bad roads that had claimed many lives.
Reacting to this, John Mastoroudes, director of Lekki port, said Tolaram would be delighted to key into the rail line project any time the rail track got to the Lekki axis.
Mastoroudes expressed worries that Nigeria as a nation still lag behind in the utilisation of rail services compared with other port nations in the world.
According to Mastoroudes, rail line is not included in the Lekki port master plan but would connect to the national line in the future, if the track is drawn close to the port.
On the road infrastructure around the port environ, he said the company received a letter of commitment dated June 30, 2016, from Lagos State government assuring them that the state government was perfecting plans to commence construction and expansion works on roads around the port, which include Eleko road, Epe/Ote-Osa road, among others.
He further said the port had completed the preliminary studies that would enable construction works to commence before the end of this month.
The port project, he said, would be delivered for commissioning in 2019.
