From left: Executive Secretary, NSC, Emmanuel Jime, DG NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, Minister of Transport, Mu’azu Sambo, CEO, Lekki Port Lagos Free Trade Zone (LFTZ), Rougang Du, Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Magdalene Ajani and MD, NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko during the visit to the Lekki Deep Seaport in Lagos, recently.

Newly appointed Minister of Transport, Mu’azu Sambo, has assured that the Federal Government is planning to construct a rail line that would link the Lekki Deep Seaport as part of efforts to enhance easy and efficient evacuation of import and export cargo at the new port.

Scheduled to commence full operation before the end of the year, the Lekki Deep Seaport is currently neither linked to any rail line nor has good road networks linked to it, a development that experts have argued would cause worse gridlocks than whatever was experienced at Apapa for several years.

The Minister, who was on his maiden visit to the seaports in Lagos, having been appointed last month following the resignation of the immediate past Minister, Rotimi Amaechi to pursue his presidential ambition, said that the Lekki Deep Seaport needs efficient rail services and good road network to cater for the volume of cargo it is expected to handle.

Accompanied on the trip by thePermanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Magdalene Ajani, the Minister insisted that talks that would culminate in the construction of rail lines to link the port were at crucial stage.