By Kenneth Jukpor
The Chartered Institute of Transport Administration (CIoTA) Nigeria has encouraged the federal government to speedily pass some relevant transport sector bills such as; the Inland Waterways bill, National Transport Commission (NTC) bill, Federal Roads Authority bill.
CIoTA made this call at the 3rd National Transport Summit which held in Abuja last week, noting that the passage of these bills will usher in private sector investments and provide the requisite regulation for transportation to thrive in the nation.
This was one of the recommendations from the summit, while Institute also recommended an elaborate regulation of e-hailing services and electric hybrid vehicles by creating an Authority to address such functions.
Noting that there are existing government organizations to cater for inspection of vehicles, the summit recommended that the focus should be more on safety and technical inspections rather than revenue generation.
The Institute, however, lamented its absence from the ongoing exercise to unbundle the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), even though the professional body commended the government for the move.
According to CIoTA, the unbundling exercise would lead to more efficiency, increase investments and provide better technical and economic regulation for the nation’s railway sector.
Speaking at the Railway and Pipeline break-away technical session, the Chairman of the technical group, Dr. Kayode Opeifa noted that CIoTA is conspicuously absent, stressing that CIoTA has a crucial role in the unbundling exercise as a body of transport professionals.
The group also that there is a need to have all three tiers of government involved in the unbundling exercise to prevent litigations and leapfrog the 25-year railway masterplan of the government.
They expressed confidence that the railway unbundling exercise would drive efficiency, enhance regulations and open the sector to private investments and Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) which would further enhance the performance of the sector.
While commending the government for the railway expansion and reconstruction around the nation, the summit observed that there is a need to connect railways to crucial transport infrastructure like seaports in a bid to attain intermodal transport system.
On pipelines, the summit recommended that the regulation of pipelines be transferred to the Ministry of Transportation, having observed that pipeline is a mode of transport and its utilization should be beyond petroleum products.
Noting the challenge of pipeline vandalism which has grossly affected the utilization of pipeline mode of transport in the country, the summit called for massive awareness and sensitization campaigns in order to curb the menace.
