By Aliyu DANLADI
The Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has said that efforts have begun to demolish parts of Lagos Ports terminals to give way for both ongoing construction of standard and narrow gauge rail lines.
Amaechi disclosed this while inspecting the five terminals at Lagos Ports at Apapa on Thursday.
“We have enjoined the Project Implementation Technical Committee on Lagos-Ibadan Standard gauge to submit a suitable design for the rail lines linking the five major port terminals at Apapa within two weeks,” he said.
The minister said that the technical committee has been given two weeks within which to submit the design.
He added that design of the Standard linking the port terminals was such that the railway line would be near the quay apron.
Amaechi said that laying the tracks near the water front would be easy to offload and load the articulated vehicles.
According to him, structures that impede on the right of way to link the port terminals with Standard gauge railway line will be demolished.
He said that challenges like gas and oil pipelines in the Apapa axis have since been sorted out and that work would soon start at the Apapa axis.
The five terminals at Apapa port inspected by the minister included Apapa Bulk Terminal, Greenview Nigeria Limited, Eko Support, ENL Consortium and APMT terminal.
