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The chairman of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMTO), Remi Ogungbemi has speculated that going by the current nature of the Lekki-Epe-Eleko highway, chances are that the intractable Apapa traffic gridlocks may be a child’s play when it will start in Lekki very soon.
Already, he revealed in an interview that an estimated 500 trucks that called at the new port at have started causing some disquiet for motorists on the Lekki-Epe-Eleko highway.
According to him, “Some of our members’ trucks, about 500 in number, have headed towards the port since we heard of the arrival of the container vessel. Some importers have been reaching out to our members about cargo evacuation processes”.
Ogungbemi noted that the absence of alternative routes to the new port as well as no holding bay for the trucks are already major threats to its smooth operation as many of the trucks will be parking on the highway as they did last weekend.
Though the Lagos State government hasclaimed that the Lekki Port would not have the kind of challenge faced by Apapa, and planned the construction of what it calls the Regional Road, which is expected to ease traffic congestion on the Lekki-Epe Expressway, the ropad has not been delivered.
But, for now, “the problem we might have with the new port is the absence of a truck holding bay. The last time we went to Lekki Port on a visit, the operators showed us a massive land space earmarked for the construction of a truck holding bay. However, as at our last check, nothing has been done on that land; so the plan to build a truck holding bay is still in the works,” Ogungbemi said.
“Without a truck holding bay, trucks calling at Lekki Port will be forced to park on the highways, and this will clog the roads, thus causing traffic chaos. Since the first container vessel arrived at the weekend, some of our members have moved towards the Lekki Port because there are cargoes that will need to be moved out of the ports,” Ogungbemi noted.