The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has finalised plans to implement the electronic call-up system to control the entry of trucks into ports in Apapa area of Lagos state.
According to the managing director, NPA; Hadiza Bala Usman, when the new system starts in January, 2021, the Orile trailer park, which is also called Ahmed Tinubu trailer park, will be the hub where the larger trucks will come.
The managing director who disclosed this in a recent interview with Channels TV, added that the January date is sacrosanct.
Explaining, she said, “you drive from there (Orile park), when you’re called upon, you come to the Tincan Island trailer park, then you gain access into the ports”.
Traffic into and out of the port city of Apapa has been a herculean task for quite a while. The traffic situation has been compounded by the lack of an efficient structure to manage the parking arrangement for cargo trucks at the ports.
But, the NPA boss expressed optimism that, the e call-up will address the traffic chaos.
The NPA has operated a manual call-up system for articulated vehicles coming to load cargoes in the ports.
The manual call-up system which involves the allocation of parking lots to loaded trucks by security agencies in charge of traffic control, has been allegedly abused and compromised.
The manual system has been marred by cases of bribery, extortion and favouritism on the part of the Presidential Task Force mandated to oversee the call-up procedure.
Many truck operators decried the corrupt practices by port officials handling the manual call-up, which has failed to address the issue of congestion and vehicle traffic on roads linking to the ports.
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