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| Minister of Transportation Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi |
“As a Minister of Transportation, I imagine a lot of things that I could have implemented. I imagined that the Lagos-Calabar rail line would start from here; that was my imagination. But the Lagos-Calabar rail project needs $11.1 billion funding,”
This was
advised this to the people handling the Lekki deep seaport by the Minister of
Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, when he visited the port project, on Sunday.
“This is the
first seaport in Nigeria”, he further noted, adding,” What we had all these
while are river ports. Tin Can is a river port; Apapa is a river port and Portharcourt is a river port. Right here you have 16.5 meters draft, which is good
for the country. The country needs more than just one of these ports because of
the increase in commercial activities in the future. We need just more than
Lagos deep seaport and for me, before I leave office I will emphasize on the
construction of the Bonny deep seaport,”
He was of
the hope that the Seaport project would receive the cargo handling equipment by
June, and commence operations in September.
Speaking further
on the project, he advised the promoters of Lekki deep seaport project, Tolaram
group, to envision making further investments to connect the facility to the
Lagos-Calabar rail line, to reduce anticipated congestion on the road due
haulage of good by trucks.
The minister
gave this advice in view of concerns by residents in the area, and other
Lagosians, who fear that the port presence might lead to further worsening of
congestion on their road when it becomes operational. This advice is apt
considering the suffering and embarrassment that the Apapa and Tincan ports have occasioned
on the citizens in the past few years as a result of vehicular gridlock.
Accompanying
the Minister on the visit were the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of
Transportation, Dr Magdalene Ajani and the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority,
Mohammed Bello Koko, some senior government officials.
Report by Elias Ali