By Joshua Yousouph
Stakeholders in the nation’s maritime industry have accused terminal operators and tank farm owners of messing up about 60 percent of the completed sections of the Mile 2 to Tin Can Port access road.
Our correspondent, who took a tour along the Mile 2- Tin Can expressway last week, observed that the service lanes from Mile 2 down to Tin Can have been completed, he however noted that the relatively slow pace of work by HI-TEC Construction Company, the sub-contractor handling the reconstruction of the ever-busy Apapa-Oshodi Expressway coupled with the construction of a flyover bridge by Lagos State government at the ‘Second Rainbow’ bus stop by FESTAC link road, has worsened traffic nightmare being experienced daily on the dual carriageway.
While speaking on the state of the road reconstruction, Mr. Frank Obiekezie, National Secretary Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) noted that several terminal operators have turned the completed portions of the port access road to parking lots for their trucks, even as he added that the remaining portion is also littered with petroleum products by tankers from the tank farms.
Obiekezie also alleged that some security personnel have created tents on these roads where they connive with the private terminals by collecting money for the parking of their trucks.
On his part, the interim president of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Mr. Pius Ujubonu decried the state of the road, noting that there is no free access to the Tin Can Island Port from Mile 2, as stakeholders make use of commercial vehicles that drive against traffic.
Ujubonu urged the government and contractors to ensure that the road construction is well-organized, while creating palliatives which will serve alternative routes for road users pending full completion.
Also speaking, the Tin Can Chapter Public Relations Officer of the African Association of Professional Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (APFFLON), Mr Clinton Okoro commended the contractors for doing a good job on the roads. He also informed that although the road construction is about 60 per cent completed, the Mile 2- Tin Can road is about 60 per cent completed, and the contractors are still foot-dragging.
Okoro however hinted that with the progress on the road construction, it cannot be commissioned, in November as earlier proposed by the Federal Government. He also informed that the traffic situation in that axis has led to the re-emergence and heavy presence of commercial motorcycles which were previously banned.
“I would give the people about 60 percent completion. The truth is that they are still dragging their feet. There is a very big delay in the work. Although the road is going to be solid after they finish the work. Majority of the stakeholders who are working in that axis don’t take their cars to work, including myself. When we come to Mile 2 and enter these commercial buses that are there, they ply ‘one way’ and even at times the traffic will be much that they will now have to take inside Kirirkiri road axis and cut off to Coconut.
“They said the Federal Government wants to commission it by November, but with the way I am seeing it, they are still at about 60 percent completion of which I am not sure that they are going to complete that job, not to talk of commissioning it. Due to the situation of the road, the Okada guys have fallen back to that road” Okoro said.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that in April, the Federal Controller of Works, Lagos state, Mr Kayode Popoola had assured that the Mile 2 to Tin Can road will be ready and delivered for use by November this year.
Popoola informed that efforts were already in place to reduce traffic on the route, while urging tanker drivers and commercial drivers to maintain decent parking space in order to avoid traffic, due to the ongoing construction.
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