By Steve Agbota
The Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, has explained that 85 per cent counterpart funding by the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) is stalling the costal railway line that should run from Lagos to Calabar.
Speaking during an interview session with journalists at the 2022 Ministerial Retreat in Uyo, Awka Ibom State, said CCECC, the contractor handling the project is unable to provide 85 per cent of its counterpart funding while Nigeria is to provide 15 per cent.
However, he gave the assurance that the Ministry has identified an investor that is willing to provide the funds and the Ministry is also in talks on how to share the job between the investor and CCECC the initial contractor.
On the importance of the coastal line, Sambo noted: “The coastal line is very important because it connects all the port cities of Nigeria. If you connect all the port cities by rail, you will then be able to open up the eastern Ports as well so that goods that come from the ports will naturally go upland”.
On how to deliver the National Development Plan 2021-2025 as regards transportation, the Minister said the plan that the ministry has under the 25 years railway modernisation plan is to connect every state capital by rail.
Meanwhile, the minister gave assurances that his ministry is working assiduously to ensure that the inland waterways would be developed enough to move cargoes by barges to their ports of destination.
“We want to make sure that inland waterways transportation is developed in such a way that movement of containers and other cargoes by barges from Lagos through the intra-coastal routes to hinterlands will become the new normal,” Sambo said.
According to the Minister, to make that possible, it will involve clearing the waterways and fortunately, the Ministry has found a company that is ready to do that sometime in November, this year.
“We have a dream in the ministry to move containers from Marina in Lagos to Onitsha in Abambra State and even to Baru in Niger State. That will entail channelisation and channel management of the routes from Lagos through the intra-coastal routes to land rivers up to Onitsha along the river Niger up to Baru,” he noted.