NCMDLCA blames Apapa-Wharf grid-lock on govt’s poor planning
On March 21, 2012 · In News
BY Godfrey Bivbere
LAGOS—National Secretary of National Council of Managing Directors of Licenced Customs Agents, NCMDLCA, Mr Uchu Block, has attributed the chaotic traffic situation on the Apapa and Tin Can Ports access roads to poor planning on the part of Federal Government in the concessioning of the ports.
He told Vanguard that immediately after the concession exercise, the concessionaires partitioned the ports without making provision for parking spaces for trucks. He said: “The spaces used before now as parking spaces had since been converted to other uses.”
On the way forward, Mr Block, said government must as a matter of urgency, force the shipping companies to get a holding bay close to the ports, where they can store empty containers until they are ready to receive them.
This, he noted would free the access roads of the containers lining up on the road daily. He also said there was need for government to speed up the construction work on the road, expressing worry that the traffic problem had continued to drive up the cost of hiring trucks for the loading of containers in and out of the ports.
He added that the cost of hiring a 20 and 40 footer trucks in the past was between N20,000 and N35,000, pointing out that the cost had since gone up to between N70,000 to N120,000 for 20 and 40 footer trucks respectively.
Mr Block noted that parking on the roads was not the fault of the truck owners because they had to wait for between two to three days before they could get jobs, to do as a result of the congestion.
He added that the congestion problem had made it difficult to get trucks for hire, as most of them now spend a lot of time in traffic.
