The Chairman, Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), Alhaji Isiaka Olalere has called on the Federal government to ensure speedy completion of the ongoing truck terminal at the Tincan Island Ports in Lagos.
Alhaji Isiaka who disclosed this in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos stated that the truck terminal when completed would be a big relief to the truckers as it would reduce the indiscriminate parking of trucks along the roads leading to the ports.
While stating that about 75 percent of the project had been executed leaving about 25 percent to be done, he however noted that if money was being paid to the contractor regularly, the contractor would have reason for delaying the delivery of the project on schedule.
According to him,” all we need is for the government to complete it so that we will have relief here because according to what people are saying, the port business is a global business, what is obtainable globally should be obtainable here”.
“You know government, the way it award contracts, one thing is to award contract, another one is to supervise it and another one is how do you pay? I believe if the money is being paid regularly, there is no reason the contractor will leave the job. But I believe about 75 percent of the job has been done leaving about 25 percent. We cannot use the garage without the completion of the remaining one. I don’t know what is delaying it”.
He noted that although the contract was said to have been re-awarded to Julius Berger for the completion of the remaining part of the project, they were yet to see any ongoing work on the site as according to him,” if we are to follow what they said, it is Julius Berger that will finish the remaining part of the project.
Speaking on the capacity of the terminal, the RTEAN boss had this to say, “according to what the engineer told us when we met with him, the terminal can contain 500 trucks but if it can contain between 400 and 450 trucks that will be okay, at least we start from somewhere”.
