Chinese Harbour to partner Atlantique Marine on Edo Gelegele deep seaport
The leadership of a seven-man delegation from the China Harbour Engineering Company (Nig.) Ltd has given early signal to partner with Atlantique Marine Engineering Services in the delivery of the Edo Inland Container Depot, known as AMES-Edo ICD.
The delegation which visited on the instance of the Edo State Government, lead by Jason Wang, on weekend inspected the Gelegele seaport, the operational base of the AMES-Edo Inland Container Depot to assess the level of work done so far.
During the facility tour, Wang said his group will soon work out models and areas of partnership to achieve early delivery of the deep seaport scheme.
He said “We are impressed with the work done here so far. China Harbour Engineerng Company (Nig.) Ltd will look at possible ways of collaboration to drive the project to its earliest conclusion,” he said.
“We are in the state as a follow up to Gov. Godwin Obaseki’s business visit to the company in China about three weeks ago where an MOU was signed by the state government and the company to develop the Gelegele Seaport.
Wang hinted that his company has already commenced negotiation with the Federal Government to build modern railway lines as a primary mode for long distance haulage of cargo, noting that 75 per cent of Nigeria’s total export passed through Edo.
“Discussion is ongoing with the Nigeria Railway Corporation to use BOT PPP mode to construct 110km short spur line from Agbor to Edo inland container depot.
“For now the inland container depot will operate 100 per cent by road but in the next 6-10 years, 40 per cent will go by road while 60 per cent will be by rail.
“The phases one and two of the inland container depot would accommodate 12, 000 units of 40ft TEUs and 8,000 units of 40ft TEUs with a maximum of 25,000 TEUs at any given time,” Wang averred.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Atlantique Marine and Engineering Services, AMES, the promoters of the AMES-Edo inland container depot, Dr Charles Akhigbe, said the organisation was confident that the proposed inland container depot would reduce the cost of export of agricultural produce and increase government’s GDP.
While explaining that the port was just three steps from final approval for full operations to commence, Dr Akhigbe said the project would create not less than 3,000 jobs for youths and provide the platform for exchange of knowledge between government and foreign investors.
