‘Container traffic in Apapa Port may triple’

Monday, Apr 16, 2007 Container traffic through Apapa port in Lagos will triple the current level of 1.6 million TEU (about 20 million tones) in the next 10 years, the acting Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Mr Maxi Nwankwo has said. Nwankwo, made the forecast at the annual transport and logistic conference held in Lagos, explained that only the railways can provide the necessary capacity, safety and reliable means of moving such number of containerised good cheaply. Said he: “ Nigeria Railways has great potentials with the on-going ports reforms. Over 70 per cent of failure of railway traffic is likely to be either imports or exports. Nwankwo noted that the current government policy on inland container depots can only be effective when the Nigerian Railway is properly developed to play its mandatory role as mass carrier especially for bulky and container traffic. He acknowledged that the management of the corporation had strived at its level and capacity to operate tourist trains for government dignitaries executives of conglomerates, schools and other social cultural groups. Nwankwo added that the newly-promulgated tourism policy of the government which aims at boosting tourism as a major foreign exchange earner for the country would have further positive implication for railways. He said, Nigeria can borrow a leaf from the Asian country of Tibet where the government expanded Tibet railways by building a rail line between the country and mainland China to encourage tourism and tourist influx. The estimation of the Tibet government is to raise the expected number of tourist from its current annual level of two million to about 2.6 million. He noted that the development of railway in the country was largely the responsibility of federal and state governments through their transport policies, and added their Nigerian railway was a great source of economic development in the country in the 1950s