Extend standard gauge railway project from Ibadan to Kano, stakeholder urges FG
BY TEMITOPE ADEBAYO
A transportation stakeholder has advice the federal government to expedite action on extension of the 157 Kilometres Lagos-Ibadan Standard gauge railway line to Kano, so as to enjoy maximum benefit derivable from haulage of goods by rail within the corridor.
Director Operations, BUENO logistics Limited, MrPaul Ndib, who gave the advice, recently, said it’s necessary in order to enhance capacity to repay the $1.5 billion loan obtained from Exim Bank of China by the Federal Ministry of Transportation for construction of Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway line within the 33-year period stipulated to offset the loan.
The standard gauge railway line from Lagos-Ibadan covers a distance of157 kilometers while Abuja-Kaduna stretches to 170 kilometers and Warri-Itakpe 326 kilometres.
Ndibe said the minimum distance that can be covered for a country to reap from haulage of containers by railway is 250 kilometers adding that profit cannot be made from operation of passenger train service.
He also posited that Abuja-Kaduna and Lagos-Ibadan Standard gauge railway line operations are also skewed towards commercial passenger traffic with Lagos-Ibadan corridor operating limited containerised goods train service.
Ndibe therefore posited that if the Federal government wants to make profit and repay its loan to China EXIM Bank within the stipulated period, the Lagos-Ibadan railway corridor should be extended to at least Minna which is about 250 kilometers from Lagos.
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Recall that the Warri-Itakpe standard gauge railway project, which was abandoned for 33 years, stretches beyond the 250 Kilometers benchmark stipulated to make profit from goods haulage.
However, it has been converted into commercial passenger train service as against the original design for industrial use in the evacuation of Iron Ore from Itakpe to Ajaokuta steel plant and Aladja steel rolling mill.
Presently, the Warri-Itakpe railway line is also used periodically to convey pipes from Warri- to Itakpe in Kogi state for onward transfer by road to Abuja, Kano and Kaduna under the A.K.K pipeline project.
