BY PHILIP NWOSU
On November 17, 2014, when President Goodluck Jonathan flagged off the operations of the Calabar Channel Management (CCM), a joint venture company between Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and Messrs Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited, for the dredging of the Calabar Port, many did not give the project a chance.
This was because the Federal Government had in the past, made several investments in the dredging of the Calabar Port so as to ensure safe navigation, but such efforts had failed to work despite the huge sum that had been invested in them.
But barely four months after the flag-off, which was performed by the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar on behalf of the President, the port has come to life again with vessels of between 7.5 and 7.8 metres sailing into it.
The contractors are presently carrying out capital and maintenance dredging of the water channel well known for its shallow draught that has hampered bigger vessels from coming into the port in the last decades.
So far, CCM has deployed dredgers, survey vessels, buoy tender, wreck removal cranes and other ancillary marine crafts to the water channel for its operation.
For maritime watchers, it is a strong indication that robust business activities would, in the next couple of months, begin to take place in Calabar and would, no doubt, change the face of the state, hitherto regarded as sleepy. It would also change the entire South-South states that would benefit from efficient service delivery at the port.
This effort, stakeholders insist, is coming at a period of renewed global interest in trade and investment in the Nigeria maritime sector.
The product of the investment, according to industry watchers, would certainly address the quest by ship owners to have more dedicated ports that will play host to larger and deep draught vessels, which is now the trend in international shipping business.
Rather than contract the project, as was the case in the past, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) decided to outsource it to its joint venture company so as to ensure timely and efficient delivery of the project for the benefit of the economy. The agency said outsourcing such project was informed by the success recorded with Lagos and Bonny Channel Managements.
"It is expected that the dredging of the water channel will increase the volume of vessel traffic and cargo throughput in the port, decongest Lagos ports and reduce cost of doing business for Calabar-based businessmen who spend additional transport cost to take delivery of their consignments in Lagos and Onne ports," said President Goodluck Jonathan during the official flag-off of CCM operations in Calabar.
He said deepening of the long-abandoned Calabar channel would not only help in reviving the port, which was developed in the 1970s to service the South-South, South-East and North-Eastern states, but help in opening the state for more businesses to thrive.
Conducting journalists on a facility tour of the project in Calabar recently, the Managing Director of CCM, Mr. Bart Van Eenoo, said that several milestones had been achieved since it began operations. He said CCM was concentrating on spots in the channel critical to navigation and that so far, 16.3 kilometres out of the envisaged 20 kilometres high spots had been dredged.
He said that with the deepening of the channel to 6.5 metres datum, vessels between 7.5 and 7.8 metres could now conveniently sail into the Port, a feat that had never been achieved in the last 20 years in the channel.
The chief executive stated that the target of CCM is to ensure that "even at low tide, the port will not go down below 5.5 metres" and that dredging and buoyage maintenance would be intensified in 2015.
Eenoo explained that the difference between Calabar Port and Lagos Port is that while the former is a river which must be deepened, Lagos is an ocean which is naturally deep. He added that the low areas at the Calabar Port are KP 74 and KP 75, which means that attention would be focused on attaining the current 6.3 kilometres depth and the envisaged 10 metres datum.
On the advantages of the port, he said apart from decongesting the Lagos and Port Harcourt ports, economic activities would be boosted in the area, as vessels that berth at the port would not go back empty but have cargo to transport back to their destinations.
He said the dredging covers over 80 kilometres and that CCM would manage the port for an initial period of 15 years as per the contract.
Eenoo allayed fears that dredging endangers aquatic life. He explained: "What dredging does is to temporarily dislocate aquatic life but it does not in any way endanger it." He also said the dredged sand would be taken away to about 15-20 kilometres and dumped into NPA's approved dumpsites.
The Project Manager of Westminster Dredging and Marine Limited, Engr. Okwara Arua Udensi, informed the journalists that with what was currently achieved, vessels of 7.8 metres could now sail into the port unhindered. Westminster Dredging Company is in the Consortium managing the channel. He said the dredging was being undertaken in conjunction with Royal Boskalis of Netherlands, a global leader in the maritime sector.
Udensi commended the stakeholders for their support of the project just as he lauded the Federal Government for earmarking funds for its timely completion.
The Port Manager (Calabar Port), Engineer Musa Wada, who was represented by Mrs. Titilola Essien, expressed satisfaction with the performance of CCM and the dredging done so far. He stated that given what was on ground, any vessel coming into the port could now come conveniently.
He added that as critical stakeholders, "the doors of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) are opened to the CCM to address any challenges that might arise."
During the tour, the journalists were taken aboard the vessels dredging the channel where the workers said they operate on a 24- hour basis and run shifts.
It is believed that with the milestone achieved so far, many investors, including Calabar Free Trade Zone, ECM Terminals, Tinapa, agric, cement and pipeline construction companies will now make use of the channel for the growth of their businesses.
However, despite the landmark achievements by CCM in the dredging as alluded to by all the stakeholders, including the NPA, it was learnt that CCM has not been paid by the NPA since inception of the project. Not even the usual mobilization fee required in such contracts was paid, it was gathered.
Reacting to the development, a Maritime analyst in Calabar, Barrister Akpan Umoh said: "I hope the non-payment to the contractors is not another attempt by the government to abandon the dredging as in the past."
He appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene in the matter and direct the NPA to pay CCM immediately, noting that the people of Cross River State and other neighbouring states who would benefit tremendously from the Calabar Port, would not want the dredging to be abandoned again.
Umoh said the non-release of funds for the project might be a deliberate attempt by the NPA management to eclipse a landmark achievement of the Jonathan's administration for some selfish and political reasons.
Earlier, the contracts for the management of the four channels in Nigeria namely Lagos, Bonny, Calabar and Warri were advertised. About 49 international companies applied and the bid process was conducted internationally by Mobotek, a Dutch consulting firm.
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