The Senate Committee on Marine Transport has revealed that failure to pay the contractors handling the construction of the truck park opposite Tin can Island Container Terminal (TICT) in Lagos, led to the suspension of work at the terminal.
The truck park which was said to be at 95 percent completion has been abandoned since last year for failure to pay the contractors N1.5 billion.
It added that the Apapa port was the dirtiest among all the ports visited in the world.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Sen. Sani Yerima gave the hint Monday in Lagos at a stakeholders’ meeting where the committee was seeking suggestions to put permanent stop to the menace of traffic gridlock caused by both wet and dry cargo trucks on the Apapa-iOshodi Expressway.
Yerima who was in company of the Chairman Senate Committee on Works, Senator Kabiru Gaya said that the latter called the Ministry of Works to confirm the level of works at the truck park and was told that the job was at 95 percent completion but that the contractors needed just N1.5 billion to come back to site.
“In particular, the Chairman Senate Committee on Works, Sen. Kabiru Gaya called his ministry (Ministry of Works) and confirmed that the truck park being constructed as one of the immediate remedies to these problems has reached 95 percent but the contractor is waiting for just N1.5 billion to come back to site.
“So, I will ask all of us to look at this problems as a national disaster and see how we can come about suggestions as a way forward as far as this matter is concerned,” he stated.
Meanwhile, in his contribution, the Vice Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Ighoyota Amori described Apapa port as the dirtiest in all the ports he had visited in the world.
Sen. Amori who bemoaned the presence of mad women and men around the port maintained that such outlook could discourage foreign investors from participating in such environment.
He said, “Apapa is the dirtiest in all the ports I have ever been in the world. Mad men and Women have taken over the port environment. No serious investor will want to invest in such environment.”
He therefore called on the stakeholders to include environmental sanitation as part of the suggestions to solve the problem once and for all.
Senator Yerima while calling on stakeholders to suggest ways to curb the incessant gridlock at the Apapa and Tin can ports access roads promised that whatever suggestions raised would be taken to the senate for a lasting solution to the gridlock.
Yerima who is the former governor of Zamafara State said, “We are going to look at the short term, medium term and at the end of the day, we will be able to come up with permanent solution to this problem.
“We learnt that so many other committees have been going around in the past and not much has been achieved but I want to assure you that whatever we resolve today, we hope to take along to the senate. The committee has resolved and decided to assure that we will work with the resolution,” he promised.
While speaking, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mallam Habib Abdullahi said that the original plan for Apapa was not for commercial activities as it had turned out to be today and huge commercial activities were having impact on the area.
He suggested that there should be connectivity between the rail and the port saying it would help.
He said, “We have to look at other factors affecting it including land transport. If only there is connectivity between the port and rail lines, quite a number of tankers will be off the road. So many years ago, transportation of petroleum products used to be done by railway but now, it is tankers.”
He added that the location of tank farms in residential areas poses threat to lives and property even as he suggested that petroleum ports should be diverted to other ports instead of the concentration in Lagos.
Also speaking, the Acting Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Baba Haruna Jauro blamed the problems on some of the trucks, most of which he said were not road worthy.
He also raised the untoward attitude of the truck drivers who he said always refused to give ways to other motorists to pass which often resorts to gridlocks.
On his part the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Barr. Hassan Bello who said the Council had done extensive work on how to rid the roads of traffic, enumerated the causes of the gridlock to include; bad roads, absence of rail connection to the port, lack of traffic management system, which he said was the order of the day in the ports all over the world.
In his suggestions, he called on the government to prevail on shipping companies to build holding bays as well as terminal operators to build terminals for the trucks coming to their terminals.
In addition, Barr. Bello quipped, “You need to have efficient regulatory principle. There must be a deliberate policy but it seems we have a laissefaire approach.
He stated further, ” there must be immediate repair of the port access roads, control of traffic on the port access roads, tank farms should be streamlined on their daily loading schedule, compel shipping companies to build holding bays for trucks, complete truck park at Tin Can and link them electronically.
“There should be tracking policy, regulating truck ownership instead of the one man, one truck system, there Should be Public Private Partnership on electronic truck call up system,” he submitted.
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