There seems to be a chain of efforts by the Federal and Lagos State government toward the resolution of the intractable traffic congestion in Apapa and other parts of the state metropolis, as Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, on Sunday, flagged off the reconstruction of the Orile-Iganmu trailer park.
The Iganmu trailer park being constructed by Planet Projects Limited, on completion, will hold at least 1,000 trucks while another facility that will accommodate 5,000 trucks is being contemplated at Ijanikin, Ojo, where the state government is acquiring a land.
This comes less than one week the Federal Executive Council approved N72.9 billion contract for the rehabilitation of collapsed sections of Mile 2 – Tin Can – Apapa Expressway.
The expressway is a major artery into Apapa, host community of the nation’s most utilised seaports – Apapa and Tin Can ports, but had been left in a state of disrepair for over one decade. The Apapa and Tin Can ports account for 75 to 80 percent of shipping activities in Nigeria.
Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, was also in Lagos last week, during which he announced the extension of the ongoing rehabilitation of Lagos-Ibadan narrow gauge rail line to Apapa, to aid evacuation of goods from the ports, in order to reduce pressure on roads in and out of Apapa.
Ambode, who led a few of his cabinet members to the trailer park site, said the flag off was a follow-up to his earlier promise to partner the federal authorities and other stakeholders in finding a lasting solution to the gridlock within and around Apapa.
“One of the resolutions is that we should have authorised truck terminal park, and so my visit to this place today (Sunday) is to flag off the reconstruction of this terminal so that we can accommodate 1,000 trucks”.
“We would do this in collaboration with the Nigeria Ports Authority so that the call-up system can work efficiently. The expansion we are adding to this particular terminal in which we have decided to acquire the adjoining land, we would use that primarily for non-petroleum trucks so that we can sectionalise these trucks and allow the call-up system to work”.
“This is just part of the efforts that the state government is making to make sure this Apapa gridlock and the truck menace become a thing of the past permanently,” the governor said.
Speaking further, he said, “I have just been briefed that we have an additional land space in Ijanikin that can accommodate 5,000 trucks. We will explore that possibility immediately; all that we are doing is to make sure that there is a permanent solution to this whole idea of trucks destroying our bridges and roads.”
He also inspected progress of work on the ongoing modern bus terminals in Yaba and Oyingbo, as well as a failed section of Sari Iganmu Road, which had been abandoned for over two years, where he assured the residents that contractors would move in to fix it within the next two weeks.
