The Committee of Directors of Petrol Depot Owners situated at Ibru Complex has lamented that the palliative works it began on the Sunrise-Coconut axis of the Apapa-Oshodi expressway has hit a brick wall as a result of paucity of funds to complete the road reconstruction project.
Chairman of the Committee, Sabitu Ajadi told Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week that many of the companies in the axis who would be beneficiaries of the road when completed, have refused to commit their money to the project. He listed some of them as; the banks, MTN, Julius Berger and so on.
Ajadi told our correspondent that the committee of directors took it upon itself in December 2017 to commence the palliative measures on the failed portion of the road from Sunrise bus stop to Coconut bus stop and made initial commitment of N125million to the project. According to him, the main project was envisaged to gulp N225million, but the operators have so far spent over N235million.
He said: “The major constraint we are having now is funding, we have been able to do the major works we are supposed to do, we have called all the other stakeholders to assist, only Royal Salt and Sifax have shown interest, Julius Berger is just playing us, MTN is playing us, the banks are also saying that they cannot commit themselves, so we are looking at how to go to their office and see how we can get additional funds to complete the project”
“The major work left is the main carriage way from Sunrise to Warehouse bus stop, from warehouse bus stop to Coconut is okay, the other one is from Coconut to warehouse bus stop has been done, we are only waiting for it to cure because it is concrete and it would take 21 days. The service lane from sunrise to coconut has been in use since 23rd of March, with this the access road there is better now, if you go there now one way driving is almost eliminated, the only constraints we are just having now is funding”, he told our correspondent.
Also, while speaking at the quarterly stakeholders meeting organised by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in Lagos last week, Ajadi who represented stakeholders at the Ibru complex reiterated his earlier statement that the stakeholders are in dire need of funds to complete the road project.
He appealed to the NPA, terminal operators and other maritime stakeholders to commit their resources to the project as this would also allow smooth movement of container trucks to the Tin Can Island port.
“For several years now we have been having issues of bad access road, series of meeting have been held, series of committees have been set up without any fruitful result”
We are soliciting the support of NPA as well as other stakeholders and terminal operators to assist in contribute to the project”
We got approval from the federal ministry of works and we have commenced work since 4th of February 2018.
When it is completed, this road would further help the port operator in the use of call-up system to the port”
He lamented that since 2017 the revenue of the tank farm operators have gone down to 40 percent.
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