Navy’s new traffic management plan relocates traffic to Mile 2, Badagry Expressway
…NPA bars port access for empty containers
Though the new measures put in place by the Nigerian Navy to ease the perennial gridlock within all the entry routes to Apapa Ports complex, Lagos, seem to be working, it has succeeded in relocating intractable vehicular traffic to Mile 2 axis and all inside streets along Badagry Expressway.
Since three weeks ago, articulated vehicles lining along Coastain down to Apapa and parts of Eko and Carter Bridges have been cleared, but the ripple effects have overshadowed business activities and vehicular traffic around Mile 2 and Badagry Expressway.
Besides, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), in a bid to clear port access roads has ordered a ban halting trailers carrying empty containers into the ports, a development the Nigerian Navy welcomed as it has aided its mission in easing the traffic situation around the port area.
In his briefing, the Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) BEECROFT, Commodore Okon Eyo the new idea of giving the call up card to truck driver in Apapa has worked very well.
According to him, the introduced “call up card system” for trucks that have business to do at the ports, has returned sanity in critical access roads to the port.
He said the call up card system only allowed trucks that had business inside the ports, while those without call up cards will be turned back at the foot of the bridge.
Explaining more, Eyo averred that “What we have done was to a design call up card. Every morning, we ask them to bring the particulars of the trucks and we endorse the cards and give it to them.
“This will distinguish them from those who are not supposed to move, who should wait for normal clearance to proceed.
“This card will be given back to them and this means that we have processed trucks to continue.
“This card has worked perfectly well with the tankers and with this, they have been able to conduct their businesses well,” he said.
Continuing, the Navy Commander noted that the meeting held with NPA on resolving the traffic crisis is working even as he advised shipping companies to have a holding bay to reduce the number of trucks carrying containers on the road.
In ain interview, Traffic Manager of Lagos Port Complex, Apapa, Victor Ogini, said that there was an existing relationship between the port and the Nigerian Navy.
