Roads & Construction
Apapa Gridlock: Presidential Task Force Opens Tin Can Truck Park To Ease Traffic – Photos
The ongoing reconstruction work on Creek Road and Liverpool Road in Apapa, Lagos, may have compelled the Presidential task force on Apapa gridlock to force the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to temporarily open the Tin Can Island truck transit park to ease the perennial gridlock along the port access road.
It was gathered that the presidential task force managing the Apapa gridlock has directed that the transit park be opened to take trucks off the roads, though the park is yet to be completed and officially handed over to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
The truck park has been under construction for more than ten years.
The project has, however, suffered delay despite repeated assurances by the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing that it would be completed in April 2019.
It would be recalled that the Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, had asked that the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to hand over the Tin Can trailer park to the authority to complete the shoreline protection.
In a reported done by Vanguard Newspapers, it was alleged that despite efforts by the government to rid Apapa and its environs of gridlock, the traffic situation particularly on Apapa/Oshodi Expressway, has remained unabated. Why? Because those who have been assigned the role of controlling the expressway that has been completely taken over by truck and tanker drivers without consideration for other roads users have taken the advantage of the gridlock to enrich themselves, hence it is their prayer that the situation lingers in order for them to continue to exploit it.
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See Also: FG Begins Movement Of Cargoes From Lagos To Onitsha Port To Ease Apapa Port Traffic (PHOTOS)
Simply put, it is the exploitation of the gridlock task team officials for pecuniary reasons that is responsible for the aberration everybody plying the ever-busy road is suffering today. According to investigations, it was revealed that the task team officials have converted the sordid situation into a bribe-taking venture.
Subsequently, a number of checkpoints have reportedly been set up from the Mile 2 Bridge for the task team officials to extort money from these frustrated truck and tanker drivers. A number of these extortion points have been identified from the Mile 2 Bridge. At these extortion points, task team officials collect between N10,000 and N15,000 from each truck driver to allow them to park around the area. Otto Wolfe bus-stop, inward Apapa, is another point of extortion by these officials.
The TinCan Truck Park project is a 350 capacity Truck Park built in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Power Works and Housing and Borini Prono.
AutoReportNG got an exclusive image of the overview of the new TinCan Trailer Park in Apapa, we are bringing it back to you.
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