Transport Minister threatens to sanction Chinese firm over rail project

Transport Minister threatens to sanction Chinese firm over rail project

The Federal Government has issued a deadline of October 30 this year for Chinese construction firm, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to meet up with the contractual agreement of providing 85 per cent of rail project cost or face sanctions.

The Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo, said this on Saturday in Lagos during the inspection of the Lekki Deep Seaport.

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According to Sambo, the projects are the Kano-Kaduna and the Maiduguri-Port Harcourt rail lines.

“The CCECC has not brought anything to the table, I gave them a deadline which is October 30, if I don’t get that money on the ground, I know what to advise Mr. President to do,” he said.

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Sambo, who expressed satisfaction with the Lekki Deep Seaport project, noted that initiatives were on ground to ensure the smooth evacuation of cargo at the port.

He said that in the meantime, the road to the sea port was being expanded, adding that the government was looking into it, and for the medium-term, barges would take care of it.

“I am impressed and happy to be back here. This we know is the pride of all Nigerians, the first deep sea port in West Africa that will take the largest ship in the world, have 16.5 meters deep and will give us hundreds and thousands of jobs. Almost automated not fully but automated enough to make life easy for port operations”

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“It is initiatives like this we want to encourage. That is why I did not hesitate when I came to the ministry and I saw a proposal of the Badagry Deep Seaport sitting on my table and took it immediately for approval.”

“Also, the President is concerned about cargo evacuation at the port and does not want a repeat of the Apapa and TinCan port and so we cannot rely on the road alone which is not the best option.

“There is a need to sit down with stakeholders to see how to tackle this,” he said.

Sambo urged the management of the port to employ as many Nigerians as possible as this was the only way citizens could put food on the table for their families.

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Earlier, the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko, noted that the Lekki Deep Seaport was one of the first solutions to reducing traffic at Apapa and Tin Can.

According to him, the automation deployed at the port is commendable and fantastic as the processes will be free of human interference.

He said that the Apapa and Tin Can ports would still be viable, adding that what they had done was to create alternatives for importers and exporters as to where they would decide to do business.

“Feasibility studies have shown that these ports will still be viable in future like 10, 15 years. The government can decide to turn some of these ports into real estate, we have some of them in Europe,” Bello-Koko said.

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