Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi has said that the Federal Government is to embark on transportation of petroleum products to their various destinations by rail as from next year.
The minister, who dropped the hint shortly after his tour of parastatals of the ministry, said that the initiative is to reduce the risks associated with trucking of petroleum products by road, in addition to putting an end to damage done to roads by heavy duty trucks carrying petroleum products.
He said that railway sector had for so long suffered neglect, due to poor policy implementation by past administrations, noting that the development had led to the proliferation of privately owned haulage services that caused chaotic situation on the nation’s roads.
The minister expressed optimism that by 2016 that trucking of petroleum products by road would have become a rare occurrence.
On the issue of uncompleted rail projects in the rail and aviation sub sectors, Amaechi noted that by 2016 such projects would have been fully completed, maintaining that construction of new rail lines and rehabilitation of old railway lines would generate over 250, 000 direct jobs with multiplier effects on economy. He stated also that government had plans of encouraging private sector collaboration at various levels for the purpose of achieving efficiency.
“The expeditious completion of on-going airports remodelling projects at Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port-Harcourt and the decongestion of airports access roads are the new measures that will be put in place for improved performance in the sector,” he added.
On the Aviation sector, the Minister stated that the Federal Ministry of Transportation in collaboration with relevant parastatals and agencies have drawn up short term plans that are currently being implemented of which the traveling public would soon notice improved service delivery in the sector.
