.transport sector was neglected for 16 years ..Commissioner

By Ike Uchechukwu, CALABAR

Cross River State Government has deployed 10 electric buses and 500 electric tricycles as part of a sweeping transportation overhaul designed to dramatically reduce commuting costs for residents across the state.

The Commissioner for Transportation, Pastor Ekpenyong Cobham, disclosed this during an interactive session with journalists in Calabar yesterday, describing the initiative as the cornerstone of Governor Bassey Otu’s pro-people transport agenda.

Cobham said the deployment was intended “to give back to the public servants, to the daily commuters, who stand to save an average of 300 to 400 Naira daily.”

His words :” Beyond the electric buses and keke, the expanded fleet includes 20 shuttle buses, 200 electric motorcycles and 10 intercity buses, each with a passenger capacity of approximately 50 persons.

“The electric buses boast a battery range of 250 kilometres per charge, which Cobham described as sufficient to make the system reliable,” he said.

According to him, the state initially considered Compressed Natural Gas vehicles before settling on the electric option for economic and environmental reasons.

“At some point, we wanted to opt for the CNG. But it was imperative that we needed to bring down the cost and try to handle the issue of our carbon credits. We then settled for the electric option,” Cobham said

Speaking further , he explained that Commuters stand to gain significantly adding that on the popular 8 Miles to Watt Market route, fares currently hover around N600.

Cobham projected a crash to between N150 and N200 once the fleet is fully operational.

“Keke operators would equally benefit, with projected daily earnings of no less than N15,000, against current daily petrol expenditures of between N5,000 and N7,000,he said.

Cobham was candid about the neglect the sector had suffered, saying nothing was done about public transportation for “16 years. No policy. No record, there was nothing.”

He recalled inheriting a ministry staffed by just two people when he assumed office on August 16, 2023, before implementing structural reforms and tackling what he called “inherent impunity in the driving culture” and “criminality, one-chance drivers and all of that.”

The commissioner described the current deployment as “a foundation seed that would lean for a completely new era in the transportation ecosystem” adding that “the era of fossil fuel is going out.”

On long-term infrastructure, the state has engaged Planet Projects consultants to the World Bank for a pre-feasibility study.

Under a Public-Private Partnership arrangement, investors are to build a 4,000-capacity trailer park at Odukpani/Akamkpa to decongest Calabar, with West African Terminal named as preferred bidders.

Cobham also confirmed that the ambitious Grand Littoral Rail Project remains on the administration’s agenda, despite what he described as federal bottlenecks delaying requisite approvals.