Conference urges FG to link airports to rail lines

Delegates debated and considered the report of the transportation committee headed by Senator Musa Adede with a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, Ralph Ola Osanaiye, as deputy chairman.They asked government to initiate and construct a rail line from Lagos to Enugu through Ore to ease movement of goods and passengers from the Western flanks […]

Delegates debated and considered the report of the transportation committee headed by Senator Musa Adede with a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, Ralph Ola Osanaiye, as deputy chairman.
They asked government to initiate and construct a rail line from Lagos to Enugu through Ore to ease movement of goods and passengers from the Western flanks of the country to the East and South-South.
They resolved that rail lines should be made to have a dualisation policy to allow for mass movements of trains as obtained in developed rail systems in other parts of the world, stressing that in order to reduce road accidents and other associated hazards, effective rail system should be developed such that petroleum products can be transported from one part of the country to the other.
Also, the conference urged the government to as a matter of urgency complete the National Hanger Project at Uyo Airport in Akwa Ibom State so that it would serve as a repair and maintenance hub to airlines operators.
The committee had observed that the existing transportation infrastructure in Nigeria comprising roads, railways, ports, airport and pipelines is inadequate in terms of accessibility and inter-operability.
The absence of a central authority to oversight the implementation of the various National Transportation Master Plan and the heavy dependence on budgetary provision for transport development has led to inadequate funding regimes and distortions in most transport projects, the committee said.
It observed that the privatization of projects such as the ports concessioning has not also removed the financial burden from government as public funds are still being applied to the expansion and maintenance of the facilities, leaving the concessionaires to collect revenue.
Conference accepted its recommendation that government should review the existing transportation master plan for each sector based on economic analysis, to determine the economic rate of return on each transportation project looking at the economic impact and financial implication of such projects.
It was agreed that foreign airlines be encouraged to employ Nigerian pilots and other staff as the number of unemployed qualified Nigerians in this sector compared to the burgeoning number of their foreign counterparts is precarious and unacceptable.