By ADAKU WALTER
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has called for the enforcement of traffic laws to tackle gridlock caused by indiscriminate parking of trucks on roads in Apapa axis of Lagos.
Fashola noted that port concession agreement and lack of loading bays was compounding the traffic in Apapa and stressed the need to make other ports viable by decongesting the over-stretched Lagos ports.
He said this at the inspection tour of the ongoing Apapa-Oshodi-Ojota-Oworonshoki Expressway rehabilitation project in Lagos.
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Fashola stressed the need for inter-agency collaboration towards resolving the challenges as well as adequate enforcement of traffic laws to remove the trucks causing obstruction on the highways.
“We provided a truck park so that people can get off the road. The traffic is a multi-level problem. Government has to enforce the law and individuals have to obey the law. We all have different levels of enforcement.
“Traffic enforcement is the duty of the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC), while truck management is the duty of the Ministry of Transport. We just need to come together and find a solute because things can’t continue this way,” he said.
Fashola said the Apapa Port was overwhelmed and overstretched by cargo and there was the need to make other ports attractive through incentives that will attract people to use them.
The minister expressed the hope that the ongoing Lekki Deep Sea Port project would decongest Apapa Port when completed, adding that the ministry constructed a road in Calabar Port to address the problem of headroom to make it more attractive for businesses.
Speaking on the Apapa-Oshodi-Ojoto-Oworonshoki project, Fashola said sections one, three and four were almost completed, adding that the section two recently awarded was only 10 per cent completed.
Section one of the project begins from Liverpool Roundabout through Creek Road to Beachland, near Sunrise and is about 10 km, while section two is 8.4 km and begins from Beachland to Cele Bus Stop.
President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the project in November 2018 to resolve the Apapa gridlock and ease congestion at the port following the award of the contract to AG Dangote Construction Company Limited at the cost of N73 billion under the Federal Government’s Tax Credit Scheme.
