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‘Federal Government is working to end Apapa gridlock’

By Daniel Anazia
01 December 2017   |   3:37 am
Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said the Federal Government is working to resolve the traffic situation experienced by Lagos residents on the Apapa port axis.

Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said the Federal Government is working to resolve the traffic situation experienced by Lagos residents on the Apapa port axis.Osinbajo made this known in Abuja at the quarterly business forum on agriculture, agribusiness, and the agro-allied value chain.

He said the FG is working with stakeholders in the private sector to resolve the gridlock in the area.The VP attributed the deplorable situation at the port to excessive pressures on its facilities.

“The port, which was meant to be a 34 million metric tonnes capacity, is now handling 80 million metric tonnes,” he said.He said government had met with concessionaires, various business organisations and officers of the navy, police, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), as well as the Lagos State government.

   
“There is a major problem there, but everyone has agreed on what to do, and there is a plan which we are executing. Nothing would happen overnight, but we have a good plan that will make it work,” Osinbajo said.
   
According to the VP, plans are underway for the government to relocate all empty containers at the port to holding bays, adding that shipping companies would no longer be allowed to operate holding bays within the port.
   
He said tank farms would no longer be allowed within the Apapa port area just as the process of licensing access to trailer parks by NPA would commence immediately.

“A task force had been created to manage traffic within the Apapa and Tin Can Island environs. Government has agreed that Dangote Group would carry out palliative works and reconstruction of some major sections of the road and this should be completed by June 2018,” Osinbajo stated.
   
He further explained that the procurement processes had been concluded for the construction of the Liverpool road to Tin Can and Mile 2 as well as Oworonshoki up to the toll-gate.

Honeywell Group would construct a trailer park to be completed in 2018, while the BUA Group would work on the Tin Can Island road, he disclosed.

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