Fresh indications have emerged that terminal operators may be lobbying the federal government at the highest level to consider concessioning the Tin Can Island Port Trailer Park/holding bay to them for use to stack empty containers.
Shipping Position Daily in a chat with a terminal operator, who pleaded anonymity, gathered that concessionaires at the Tin Can Island Port and Apapa Port are currently battling space constraints as a result of congestion. He said the ports are already clogged with empty containers.
Meanwhile, the holding bay facility was built to accommodate trucks waiting to go into the port and prevent them from parking along the road as they do presently, causing traffic gridlocks.
Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Ms Hadiza Bala Usman had demanded that the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing hand over the holding bay to the agency for completion of the shore protection works.
But the concessionaire told our correspondent yesterday that if the holding bay is given to the truck drivers as truck park, they would bastardize all the facilities and mess it up.
Rather, he said NPA could decide to manage the facility by themselves or give it out to a private company.
Speaking he said "The terminal operators in Apapa, APMT as well as those in Tin Can Port should be given the space for stacking of empty containers.
Whoever is managing the space would be able to identify where containers belonging to a terminal is stacked at every point in time so there would be no delay"
"The major challenge at the port today apart from the bad access road is the lack of space at the port, especially the Tin Can Island port, the whole port is congested with containers, we are trying hard to manage the little space we have"
"Though the space at the holding bay is not designed for loaded containers, but with the pavement done there, it would be able to handle empty containers.
Government should concession it out to terminal operators"
But, peaking with Shipping Position Daily, Chairman of Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO); Chief Remi Ogungbemi argued that concessioning the truck park to terminal operators would not work.
According to him, what the terminal operators need is buffer vessels to move large containers out of the port.
"What the concessionaires need right now is buffers to come and remove all their empty containers, a buffer is a very big ship that can carry up to 5,000 or more containers at the same time"
"Because even though you make the whole area as big as Ajegunle to serve as empty container depot, if there is no evacuation, the place would fill up within six months, evacuation is what the shipping companies lack", he said.
Discussion about this post