The Lagos State Government and Traffic Management System; the promoters of the Call Up Technology in the new free trade zone, have concluded plans to deploy electronic call up system for trucks on the Lekki – Epe axis with a view to manage the traffic that is already building up in the port corridor.
Speaking at a stakeholders meeting held at the office of the Lekki Free Zone Development Company recently, Lagos State Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Seun Osiyemi said that the government cannot wait to start the management of the traffic situation along that axis following the indiscriminate parking by both container trucks and tankers on both sides of the road.
Osiyemi who went on a tour of the Free Zone, also said that the government is considering use of the waterways to evacuate bulk, dry and liquid from the port.
According to Osiyemi, the government cannot do everything, adding that companies operating within the Zone must to join hands with the government to open this axis as soon as possible.
“That is the only way we can get to the promise land, if we wait for government, what happens is that the longer we wait the more moribund this place becomes and then the revenue you are trying to get at will not come.
“You see, sometimes you throw out Money to make money, what are the prognosis there, the prognosis is that this place will expand and blow out. Osiyemi stated.
Similarly, the Deputy Managing Director of the Lekki Free Zone Development Company, Mrs Bolatito Ajibode said that the Zone was the only place left in that axis for investors to acquire land as over 3,000 hectares of land are available for use in the zone.
Also speaking during the tour, the Managing Director of the Call Up Technology, Mr. Tim Koleolu said operators of terminals with truck parks within the red zone- from Eleko Junction inwards- will be unbundled on the Callup system for ease of administration and proper traffic management.
Koleolu also said that their hardwares have been deployed at the Lekki Deep Seaport, Lekki Free Trade Zone and all the approved parks that are ready for operations.
It was also gathered that by the projection of the Zone, oil and gas alone will generate 40.2million metric tons of cargoes annually noting that while the roads will take 52 percent of the cargoes exiting the port, waterways will take 22 percent and the proposed rail will evacuate cargoes another 22 percent of volumes.
Apart from the leadership of the Lekki Free Zone Development Company, the Lagos State government through its Commissioner of Transport, Mr. Seun Osiyemi that attended the stakeholders meeting, the Leadership of the Lekki Deep Seaport, Pinnacle Oil and Gas, Dangote Refinery, the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA amongst others was also in attendance.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Workers, NUPENG, has pledged to collaborate with other stakeholders to support the success of the Callup System by integrating their members into the Callup project.
