The Nigerian Railway Corporation has resumed movement of cargoes in containers to Kano and Kaduna Inland Dry Ports.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director of Inland Containers Nigeria Limited (ICNL), Ismail Yusuf.
He said so far, about forty containers had been moved and an additional forty empty containers had been returned through same mode to Lagos from the Kano and Kaduna Dry Port, which is a subsidiary company of ICNL
Yusuf said the movement by rail will contribute to cost reduction, time saving and further ensure safety of the consignments being moved by rail.
The managing director further pointed out that it will now cost half of what is presently spent on road haulage to move containers by rail.
According to him, ICNL was still in talks with NRC to deploy additional coaches to the port operation because the company had cargoes on ground to be moved.
“As you know, the Federal Government is encouraging the Nigerian Railway Corporation to ensure movement of cargo from the sea port to the hinterland and this is very critical to our Kano bonded terminal and Kaduna Inland Dry Port, which is our subsidiary company.”
“Presently, they have supplied us two rails for the last two weeks. We have moved about forty containers, and this will continue every fortnight until we attain maximum capacity.
“The number of containers being moved also depends on availability of locomotives, and as long as we have enough cargos to load. We have started from somewhere: from one to two rails, and from there we can increase it to four or five rails.”
Yusuf disclosed that time spent on the movement is a minimum of forty eight hours and maximum of seventy two.
The NRC had suspended movement of containers by rail from Apapa ports in 2020 for the rehabilitation of the railway tracks
Lagos Railway District Manager, Mr. Jerry Oche had in September 2020 explained that the suspension of the rail service is to pave way for the resumption of laying of tracks on the ongoing standard gauge rail project.
He said the period would also enable the contractor meet up the December deadline to complete the project.
