Umar Garba, Port manager of the Tin-can Island Port, has said that the ongoing palliative work along the Tin-Can – Mile 2 end of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway will be a huge relieve for operations at the nation’s second-busiest port.
According to him, the situation of the road started having greater effect on port operations around October this year such that the state of the road threatened to ground port operations.
Garba said the situation made him to contact the Presidential Task Team on Decongestion of Apapa and the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, seeking for their interventions. “At that time, taking delivery of consignments from the port as well as trucks getting access into the port became almost impossible.
He pointed out that if the palliative work, which started over the weekend, did not commence, operations would have been completely grounded at the Tin-Can Port.
According to him, “The state of road affected our port, such that it was almost about to shut down. That was why I have to call on the task team to hold on to release of trucks.
He, however, noted that Kayode Opeifa, chairman of the Task Team was able to connect the management of the Tin-Can Port to a director, South-West in the Federal Ministry of Works, who inspected the road.
“We insisted that the ministry must do palliative on the road before starting the main work on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and that was why they decided on the partial closure of the road,” he noted.
Recall that earlier, Adekunle Oyinloye, group general manager of SIFAX Group, owners of Ports and Cargo Handling Services Ltd (PCHSL), had blamed the bad state of access roads to Nigerian ports, which makes it difficult to gate out enough laden containers in order to receive empties that are littered on the roads, as one of the challenges facing port operations at Tin-Can.
