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Traffic: FG to evacuate petroleum products by railHopes of permanent solution to the protracted Apapa traffic gridlock brightened recently as the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) said it would commence evacuation of petroleum products from tank farms and oil depots located in Apapa by rail before the end of September.
The move is expected to decongest roads leading to the ports as indiscriminate parking of tankers is being fingered as the major reason for the congestion in the axis.
The Director of Operations, NRC, Mr. Niyi Ali, who made the disclosure in Lagos expressed hopes that the frightening vehicular traffic that characterise Apapa and Tin Can will soon be a thing of the past.
He further disclosed that railway links to the tank farms for petroleum products evacuation by oil marketers would be completed by September this year, adding that some oil marketing companies have begun moving Automotive Gas Oil (AGO. He said petrol transportation by rail would commence once attendant safety issues are addressed.
“Recently, NRC moved its first commercial quantity of diesel out of Apapa. We moved 12 wagons of AGO from Lagos to Kano. Moving AGO is a bit easier because you don’t need that much amount of safety considerations. So, we can trans-load from tankers to rail tankers and that is what we will continue to do. As time goes on, we will see some improvement in not just the volume of AGO but also other products.
“In the AGO movement, we used a third party called Connect Rail, which brokered the deal between the Nigeria Railways and a product marketer, Eterna Oil Plc.”
Ali further said that NRC has acquired 40 brand new pressurised tank wagons meant for evacuating petroleum products from jetties.
“Pressurised means that they don’t leak and that they can be guaranteed in terms of their quantity. But there is a bit more to petroleum products’ movement than just having tank wagons. The important thing to remember is that unlike other traffics, the point of loading and offloading is where there are always safety concerns.
“The first thing we did in our discussions with some of the oil marketers was how to create access to the tank farms and as we speak, we have contracts to rehabilitate all the lines to the tank farms of the major oil marketers.
“The lines are currently being built and rehabilitated to their terminals. We also have ongoing discussions with most of them about the facilities that are required to trans-load the products from their tank farms into the tank wagons. We also consider the fact that these materials are highly combustible, so safety is always the key concern for us,” he added.
He said NRC is currently moving about 60 units of 40ft containers every week from APM Terminals Apapa to the northern part of the country.
“We are also in serious discussions with APMT and from next month our target is to be running three trains a week between Lagos and Kano. That is in addition to what we are already carrying.
“We are also in discussion with all other operators like ENL and GDNL to see how we can best utilise their facilities but all these have to do with re-establishing confidence in the rail system,” Ali added.
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