The Federal Ministry of Transportation, has disclosed plans to connect all seaports, airports and inland container depots by rail.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Sabiu Zakari, said; “The vision is for a farmer in Sokoto to be able to send his goods from his farms by road to the nearest inland container depot, where it would be carried by rail to one of the seaports for export to Europe, America, Asia.”

Zakari who stated this at the opening session of the 15th National Council on Transportation holding in Sokoto, stressed that sustainable development of an economy could be directly linked to an efficient transportation system.

“The current transport infrastructure and services are inadequate to cope with the country’s huge population and so the need to develop and integrate the various modes has become a necessity to enhance the nation’s transportation system,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary said government had recorded modest strides in linking Apapa port to rail, adding, “Bonded containers are currently being transported by rail from Apapa port to Inland Container Nigeria Limited Depot in Kaduna.”

He expressed optimism that the development of intermodal transportation would reduce the cost of transportation, the influx of people and trucks to port cities.

This, he added would reduce congestion at the ports, create jobs, develop modern transport infrastructure and extend the life of the already existing ones by reducing the over reliance on single mode in the country.