By Hassan Osman Kargbo

ARISE an Integrated Industrial Platforms-ARISE IIP has in a letter dated 22nd September, 2023, addressed to the Minister of Transport and Aviation, Alhaji Fanday Turay, informing him about their operation of rail passenger service in the country.

ARISE IIP reminded the minister of the Railway and Port Lease Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) and Arise IIP of 17th January, 2023, to operate and maintain the rail and ports in the country.

According to the letter, Arise IIP informed the minister about an already procured and shipped seven (7) passenger railcars and their associated critical spares from Japan, disclosing that they are expecting them to arrive in the Freetown Port on 26th October, 2023.

They continued that their team is currently occupied with plans to receive the railcars, including mobilising the required equipment to safely discharge, transport and park them along the rail infrastructure.

They noted that the rail infrastructure is currently under Kingho’s control, and therefore kindly requested that the office of the minister of transport engages with the Kingho, for permission to park the railcars anywhere available along the rail corridor, until they commence operations of the rail passenger service in the country.

In its conclusion, the latter informed the minister that in the coming weeks, Arise IIP will submit to the minister’s office the duty-free entry forms for the shipment so that they will grant them duty-free waiver as stipulated in the agreement.