The Nigerian Ports Authority has described the incessant traffic gridlock along port access roads as an international embarrassment that all stakeholders must synergise to tackle sustainably.
The Managing Director of NPA, Mohammed Bello Koko, disclosed this in a statement recently when he paid an unscheduled visit to Tincan Island Port access road.
He said that the visit was part of efforts to consolidate the gains recorded in the clearance of illegal checkpoints and shanties causing traffic gridlock on Tincan Island Port access road.
Recall that the Mohammed Bello Koko-led NPA administration recently received commendations from some freight forwarders under the auspices of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders for clearing the perennial traffic gridlock that characterised Lagos Ports of Apapa and Tincan.
Bello-Koko noted that the agency’s zero tolerance for all forms of impediments to the free flow of traffic was no fluke.
He expressed gratitude to the Minister of Marine & Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola and the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for the support the NPA had received from them in achieving the feat.
“Ports access roads are an international corridor, which means traffic gridlock along such sensitive road networks, apart from negating port productivity, is an international embarrassment that requires the synergy of all stakeholders to tackle sustainably.
“Although the causes of the gridlock are rooted in factors external to the NPA, we have a duty as the gateway to the national economy to take the frontline role in tackling this menace,” Bello-Koko asserted.
Speaking on the menace of refuse debris blocking the drainages, the NPA boss said he had directed the relevant in-house department to commence clearance of the drainages and refuse.
He stated, “We will enlist the cooperation and intensify synergy with Lagos State Waste Management Authority and the Federal Ministry of Works, under whose purview waste and road management reside, to arrest the ugly trend.”
