The perennial traffic gridlock between Mile 2 and the Tin Can Island Port on Oshodi/Apapa Expressway in Lagos State has disappeared, according to The Nation.
The huge relief follows a joint operation embarked upon by the government and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) last Monday.
Stakeholders who spoke with The Nation applauded the government and NPA for a job well done. They called for a sustainability of the joint exercise to ensure the gridlock does not return.
Investigations revealed that motorists and commercial bus drivers now enjoy unlimited access to the Tin Can and Apapa ports from Oshodi.
Secretary of the Lagos State Truck and Cargo Operators Committee (LASTCOC) Sanni Bala thanked the NPA and government for successfully opening the Tin-Can express road to boost businesses at the port. “NPA and Lagos State have successfully broke that jinx that makes opening of Tincan port access road look herculean. Opening Tin-Can Port access road would promote free flow of traffic, seamless evacuation of cargo, trade facilitation and ease of doing business.
“It is our hope and prayer that the road clearance operation would be continuous to prevent re-grouping and return of extortion bandits taking advantage of gridlock to extort truckers and burgle containers in transit”, Bala said.
Manager of the Lagos Port Complex Manager and Chairman, Eto Project Implementation Committee, Charles Okaga, had spoken of plans by NPA and Lagos State to dislodge articulated trucks and all extortion points from the Mile 2/Tin Can Port access road.
He said the NPA is worried that months after rehabilitation and completion of the road project, port users and motorist cannot access the port directly except by driving against traffic because of the indiscriminate parking.
Okaga berated the activities of non-state actors and confirmed the readiness of the NPA to collaborate with the
He said: “We have collaborated with the Lagos State government, we did some clearance of shanties and areas obstructing port movement last week on the Apapa area to Ijora side, we are moving to Mile 2 area to Tin Can Island Port by next week.
“In the advocacy efforts in encouraging people to comply and conform, the first thing is to provide the right environment for business to thrive. If you cannot drive freely in and out of the ports, businesses cannot thrive. The pressure on the Apapa-Ijora axis is as a result of the activities of the non-state actors along the Mile 2- Tin Can axis, there are more than 20 points that trucks and truckers are meant to part with money before getting into the port.
“In a bid to avoid these things, both Tin Can bound trucks and Apapa bound trucks now ply the Ijora corridor to reduce cost of access”.
“Right now, there are rehabilitation works on the bridge, so the volume of traffic and pressure has increased, and because of this, there is more pains”.
