There is no respite yet for motorists and port users accessing the Tin Can Island port through the Mile 2/Oshodi Apapa expressway one week after the commencement of the electronic call-up system.
Apart from the fact that some truck drivers were still parking on the road, the ongoing construction along the Mile 2/Tin Can Island Port access road and Liverpool roundabout worsened the gridlock with huge concrete slabs used to block some portion of the road.
When SHIPS & PORTS visited the Tin Can Island Port on Friday, trucks trying to exit and access the port had taken over the entire stretch of the Tin Can Island Second Gate to Coconut Bus Stop with motorists struggling to navigate through the chaos.
Traffic management officials were conspicuously absent on the road, except for a lone soldier seen controlling traffic and beating some commercial motorcyclists for driving recklessly and competing for space on the chaotic narrow road.
It was however, a smooth ride accessing Apapa port from the ijora axis as trucks that had hitherto made the road and bridges their parking lots have been evacuated.
“The road has to be fixed before we can start any new system at the port. The e-call up is a good initiative but look at the road, there is still chaos everywhere along the Tin Can Island/Mile 2 axis because of the ongoing construction. Without the government fixing the road, the system cannot work on this road and that is what we are experiencing now.
“If the roads have been fixed, and they position where the trucks will park and enter the port, we won’t be experiencing this traffic. The Apapa wharf axis has been settled with the e- call up but I will suggest they put it on hold along this axis until when the road is fixed,” a port user, Damian Eze said.
Another port user, John Obiora, who accused Hitech Construction Company of conniving with some security agencies who engaged touts to make life difficult for truckers, urged the Lagos State Government to beam its searchlight on the activities of the construction company.
President General, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, recently decried the slow pace of work on the Apapa-Oshodi expressway, especially at the Tin Can/Mile 2 end of the highway. While calling on the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to prevail on the contractor to expedite action on the road project, Adeyanju, said the newly introduced electronic call-up system for trucks at the Lagos ports can only be successful when the repair of the road is completed.
“We are all aware of what is happening along the Tin Can road. The contractors are very slow in handling that project. If the NPA e-call up system for trucks will be successful, they must ensure they expedite action on the road on time so that they can put it to use for all the trucks and stakeholders. ”The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing will need to talk to Hitech contractors; the work they are doing is very slow,” Adeyanju said.
