By Sarah Moshe
Management of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) have decried the delay in the commencement of construction work at the various Inland Container Depots (ICDs) 30 months after all the provisions in the agreement for the construction has been meant.

Disclosing this in recently, R.K Sanusi, Director Inland Transport Service of the Nigeria Shippers Council, NSC, at an enlightenment forum held in Jos, said with the conclusion of the site handing over activity to the four concessionaires for Jos , Kano, Ibadan and Aba ICDS in November 2009, they were expected to have commenced the construction of their various projects.

Having realized and commended the need for the establishment of Inland dry ports to solve the problems of the hinterland shippers due to congestion at the ports, the need to establish the ICDs was conceived.

The above he explained put “an additional burden on shippers in the hinterland while the high cost and hazardous nature of haulage by roads, as well as clearing of goods which took two weeks and the realization that a rail-based ICD system would be the only alternative, that provided the immediate imputes for a policy.”

Following government decision, the NSC in 2002 appointed Hamburg ports consult and a Nigerian firm Spring Fountain Management consultant to carry out a feasibility study on the viability of the ICD in Nigeria.

The recommendations of the firms identified the present ICD locations which are Erunmu in Oyo state with 50,000 TEU for the South West, Isi-ala Ngwa in Abia state for the South East , Heipang in Plateau State with 20,000 TEU for the North Central while the North East has Bulunkutu with 10,000 TEU in Borno, North West has Zawachiki in Kano with 20,000 TEU and North West has Zamfarawa with 10,000 TEU in Katsina as viable project sites.

The Federal Government gave it approval, recommending that ICDs / CFSs be constructed at the identified goe-political zones and that an inland container Depot Implementation committee (ICD-IC) with membership spread across a wide range of relevant ministries and parastatals be established with the Minister of transport as the chairman and the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ council function as member /secretary, on receipt of the report and recommendation of the feasibility study.