The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has assured that immediate remedial work on the failed approaches to the two ports in Lagos will soon begin, so as to alleviate the trauma that port users face on daily basis.
This assurance was given yesterday by the new General Manager in charge of the Western Ports of NPA; Chief Michael Kayode Ajayi when he undertook a tour of the concessioned terminals in the Lagos Ports Complex.
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has assured that immediate remedial work on the failed approaches to the two ports in Lagos will soon begin, so as to alleviate the trauma that port users face on daily basis.
This assurance was given yesterday by the new General Manager in charge of the Western Ports of NPA; Chief Michael Kayode Ajayi when he undertook a tour of the concessioned terminals in the Lagos Ports Complex.
Chief Ajayi disclosed that the NPA will be partnering with the Federal Roads Management Authority (FERMA) in order to ensure that remedial works on the dilapidated access roads to Apapa and Tin Can Island Port begins in earnest.
Accompanied by senior officials of the NPA, the new General Manager visited the ENL Consortium Limited, Apapa Bulk Terminal Limited, Greenview Development Nigeria Limited (GDNL) APMT terminals, Eko Support and LADOL Deep Offshore Logistics Base.
Chief Ajayi assured the terminal operators that NPA is meeting with FERMA on Friday in order to address issues concerning the bad access to the ports, even as he assured that the Managing Director, Prince Sanusi Ado Bayero is already in Abuja trying to negotiate a permanent solution to bring the gridlock along the corridor to an end.
In addition to this, the Western Port GM informed his tenants that NPA has acquired two tug boats in addition to what she is having already, and that additional pilot quarters are equally underway.
After he had been informed about the various challenges of security confronting the terminal operators, Ajayi promised that NPA is providing two police patrol boats to begin immediate patrol of the waterfronts in order to discourage wharf rats.
"The immediate access to the port is a problem I am going to address by myself, we have arranged a meeting with FERMA and the essence of the meeting is for us to have a remedial measure while the permanent one will be done by the Ministry of Works".
"I was told that the road was awarded sometime ago to Julius Berger, on the strength of this, they did some palliatives, the thing went down and we never saw Julius Barger again"
"On the longer term, the managing director is already discussing this in Abuja on the issue of the Apapa and Tin Can corridor" Ajayi stated.
Speaking earlier with management staff of the Apapa Port, he said: "the essence of the visit is to familiarize myself with my terrain where I am going to work, I am a practical person, I will not sit in the office and treat papers, I will see things as they are. This is an era of change and individually we are the agents of change and we must demonstrate it to see improvement in port services"
On the Apapa traffic bottleneck, he said: "One of the major challenges facing the port today is the traffic gridlock along this corridor, it is a nightmare that has disrupted the lives of everybody and it is affecting the GDP of this country"
"Many of our employees have been attacked by armed robbers, and their safety has been in a precarious state along this corridor, we cannot continue like this, so we must take a proactive action to ensure that we bring back the glory of Apapa corridor and this is one of my commitments as I assume office" he assured.
He solicited the support of the staff of the Lagos Port in order for him to achieve success.
Ajayi was received at the ABTL by the Managing Director; Capt Bashir Muhammed, Mr. Abba Bukar at GDNL, Mr. Andrew Daws at APMT, Miss Amy Jadesimi at LADOL and Mr. Modupe Marcus at ENL Consortium.
While receiving the NPA delegation at his terminal, Managing Director of ABTL Terminal; Capt Bashir Muhammed lamented the delay caused by the lack of tug boats by the NPA.
According to him, every one hour delay caused by NPA causes the terminal operator to lose US$1000 and that over 300 hours have so far been lost in the past year.
"The major challenge that we need your assistance on is the tug boats. Every one hour delay in this terminal for vessel berthing or un-berthing is US$1000, last year we had up to 300 lost hours. The more money we make, the more we pay to you as throughput", he told his guest.
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