October 22, 2017

The Lagos State Sector Command, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) says a permanent solution to the Apapa gridlock is the establishment of holding bays to accommodate trucks and articulated vehicles before loading.

The Sector Commander, Mr Hyginus Omeje, who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos, added that this would put an end to the perennial gridlock.

He said that all owners of tank farms should provide facilities that would accommodate trucks coming into their facilities to load.

“I think the traffic congestion problem in Apapa will be solved permanently if holding bays can be established to take trucks coming in to load.

“The stakeholders with owners of tank farms should begin to pay attention to having a holding bay that can contain some trucks before being called in to load,’’ he said.

Omeje said that government was trying to address the issue by bringing private investors to put up the facilities for the benefit of the residents.

He said that this was a fundamental issue that was needed to allow free flow of traffic within the corridor.

“We can have the private sectors coming up with the parks that some of the trucks can easily move in and wait for loading instead of parking along the streets in Apapa, thereby causing traffic.

“Through the process, the next truck to load in the tank farm will be called through electronic call-up system. This method will reduce the gridlock,’’ he said.

According to Omeje, the FRSC has partnered the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to inspect all trucks coming into the port for business.

“We have had various meetings with the stakeholders, registered operators and NPA and we told them that it will not be business as usual if their trucks are not roadworthy.

“Beside that, some of the articulated vehicles are overloaded, thereby causing traffic along the road.

“We want to ensure that our road transport safety standard schemes are implemented at the ports for every truck coming in to load,‘’ he said.

Mr Daniel Adewa, a businessman in Apapa, told NAN that the bad roads within the area posed a great challenge to business operations and logistics.

Adewa appealed to the Federal Government to be proactive in fixing the roads as many businesses were suffering as a result of the gridlock.