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First Container Freight Train Of Lagos-Ibadan Railway Sets Off From Apapa Port
The first container freight train of the Lagos-Ibadan railway, built by the China Civil Engineering Construction Company(CCECC), has set off from Apapa Port in Lagos, Nigeria.
According to a statement on CCECC’s website, on Thursday the container carried 40-foot containers to Ibadan.
“It departed from Apapa Port and carried a total of 30 40-foot containers, arriving at Ibadan station in just two and a half hours,” it read.
‘This train is the first container freight train after the cement freight train started operating on July 4th’”.
This comes a month after the Minister of Transportation, Senator Saidu Alkali flagoff the first cargo movement on the Lagos-Ibadan rail corridor, and nearly two years after the former President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the project.
This initiative aims to alleviate the congestion at the Apapa port, which handles a significant portion of Nigeria’s exports and imports in the First Quarter (Q1) of 2022 (92.28% of exports and 60.77% of imports).
The Nigerian Railway Corporation plans to operate one pair of container trains daily and gradually increase the number of trains as the demand grows, improving the railway transportation system behind Lagos Port.
