Dala Inland Dry Port completion stands at 80 percent says Shipper’s Council

The Nigerian Shipper’s Council (NSC) has said progression of construction at Dala Inland Dry Port, in Kano stood at 80 per cent completion.

Executive Secretary of the Council, Mr. Emmanuel Jime, gave the indication on Saturday during an inspection tour of the multi-billion naira international cargo terminal at Zawachi community in Kumbotso Council of Kano State.

Jime, who disclosed that the council has consistently based it’s assessment on the project on the weekly report of the coordinating team from his office, was hopeful the project would reach advance stage by the end of March, 2022.

The Shipper’s Council boss, who dispelled knowledge of any agreement on declaration of the facility as port of origin and destination, explained Dala Inland port would only be certified at the full completion of the project.

He said demanding the council to issue certification of the dry port at 80 per cent project completion would only among to putting cat before the horse, just as he assured the Federal Government would only do right thing at the right time.

“We have a coordinating team that report the progress of work on weekly basis and as at the last reporting, the level of work stood at about 80 per cent. I haven’t gotten the last report yet to confirm if they have gone beyond the 80 per cent, but the final assessment would be done at the end of the month when the minister would come back as a team.

“The much I can say is we are relying on our own coordinating team at the Shipper’s council and until we get the final reporting on the completion of the project then we would be able to say exactly where we are as far as the port is concerned.”

Reacting on the purported agreement, Jime said, “I can’t speak to that agreement because I was not part of it and I haven’t seen the records that related to that but that is really not a great problem, once we get to complete delivery of the project, I mean the process of declaring the port as origin and destination is not really a complicated process.

Earlier, the Chairman of Dala Inland Dry Port, Alh. Abubakar Sahabo Bawuro, told the Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi inspection team, that the Federal Government was in agreement with the management of the port to declare the facility as port of origin and destination at 60 per cent completion of work.

Bawuro, who assured the delegation of the ministry of transportation of commitment to deliver the full completion of the physical process of the dry port by the end of March, said there is the need to get the certification to further enhance the marketing visibility of port.