Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), has said that the planned construction of Inland Dry Port (IDP) at the terminal end of the Lagos-Ibadan Standard gauge railway
will help to address the gridlock being suffered at Tin Can Island and Apapa ports.
The Executive Secretary of the Council, Mr. Hassan Bello stated this during an inspection tour of the IDP location at Olorisa Oko, Ibadan, by the Minister of Transportation, Hon Rotimi Amaechi and officials of the Oyo State Government at the location.
According to NSC CEO, the rail line to the ports and the IDP will certainly address the traffic issues experienced at Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.
Bello who said the turning of the sod will hold in two weeks added that the dry port will create 3000 direct jobs and over two million indirect jobs.
He said the IDP which is expected to be constructed in the next in 18 months will be technology driven to avoid the mistake made in the seaports.
“It is 18 months construction time and before that we negotiate the terms of the lease. It will be a modern facility driven by technology and we try to avoid the mistakes of the seaports.
“Most of the land will be for industrial park and truck transit parks so that there won’t be congestion, but most importantly, the dry port will eliminate the perennial congestion at the seaports in Lagos and other places and we will like to move cargoes out of the port to hinterlands because port is not a storage place.
He further explained that the IPD and the industrial park would occupy 90 hectares of land to help movement of goods to the hinterland.
The IDP, he added will be a point of cargo consolidation and customs clearance for both import and export goods for states in the South West.
It would be recalled that the federal government, Oyo state government and a Chinese construction company, CRCC, had signed an agreement to construct new dry port at Ibadan for the sum of $134million.
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) had advertised the Request for Qualification and bids will be received on 16th April 2019.
The IDP has capacity for 40,000 ETUs and will be developed in three phases.