The Federal Government has announced that it is set to empower a special task force that will remove trucks/trailers from the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway to make access into the Apapa ports easy.
It said the committee on road decongestion would ensure that trucks/trailers were not allowed to block the port access roads.
This was part of the agreement that the government reached with the Maritime Workers Union to make them to suspend their planned strike.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, Ministry of Transportation, Ministry Power, Works and Housing and the Nigerian Ports Authority had on Tuesday reached the agreement with the union, which led to the suspension of the strike, according to reports by Shipping Day News.
During the meeting, the union leaders expressed concerns about the slow pace of work on the road, and called on the contractor to speed up the work.
The union also called on the government to discourage further establishment of new tank farms in port area.
Another measure agreed on was the collaboration between the government and the concessionaires to ensure movement of containers by rail.
The union also called for more efforts in the completion of trailer park project where trucks could be accommodated.
The agreement read, “The collaborative efforts of Federal Ministry of Transportation through the NPA, Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing, Dangote and Flour Mills on the two kilometre Wharf Road are noted. However, these efforts have not been very appreciable as only 10 percent of the work has been done till date.
“The meeting therefore called on the lead project company, Dangote, to speed up action in terms of galvanising human and material resources to see that they meet the timeline of the completion of the project in spite of unforeseen challenges. The Federal Government should pursue vigorously the policy of non-establishment of new tank farms in the port areas.
“The sanitary conditions of the surrounding and roads to the ports should be the social corporate responsibility of the NPA and the authority should do the needful to remove the refuse within three months to avoid endangering the lives of workers and port users.”
It added, “The collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the concessionaires at the ports in terms of movement of containers by rail should be strengthened so that there is no pillage of trailers on access road to the port.
“The establishment of 340 capacity trailer park by the FMPW&H is a step in the right direction and noteworthy but the meeting appeals that the final stage of the shoreline protection work be completed before the end of the second quarter of 2018.
“A total reconstruction of the major access roads to Tin Can Island Port area from Liverpool Road via Coconut via Sunrise to Mile2 road should be undertaken urgently and in this direction, the FMoT through the NPA is to synergise and consummate the project before the end of the second quarter of 2018. The FMPW&H which has already captured the road to the Tin Can Island Port in its 2018 budget should also do the same for roads leading to other ports nationwide.”