In this report, Correspondent, Andrew Airahuobhor writes on the worsening condition of Apapa roads, causing nightmarish traffic gridlock, which has continued to take its toll on business activities within and around the port town from where government realises significant portion of its revenue. Residents along the Oshodi-Apapa-Badagry corridor are not spared, as they daily spend three to five hours just to get out of the gridlock that the area has become. Access to Apapa, a port town in Lagos, hosting two of the busiest seaports in Nigeria has become a persistent nightmare. The traffic situation has worsened in the last two weeks, as commuters, port users and workers whose offices are located within Apapa now spend about three hours to access the town either from Mile 2 or Ijora, the two main access routes. There is a seeming lack luster attitude on the part of government to address the several man hours lost to traffic on a daily basis, which is counter-productive, despite huge revenue accruing from activities in Apapa. Indiscriminate parking of trucks and tankers on the roads, failure of portions of the roads as well as activities of policemen and other security operatives within the port city have been blamed for the worsening traffic situation. It was gathered that for anyone to arrive at work in Apapa on time these days, such person must leave his home before 3am. On the average, workers arrive their offices between 11 am and 12 noon by which time they would be tired. Apart from that, by 3pm or 4pm, they are battling the thought of returning home in the same traffic gridlock. In effect, productivity is diminished. “What meaningful job can you do under this condition,” one official of a shipping company lamented in a chat with Daily Independent, explaining that because Nigeria has a culture of wastes, nobody seems to be bothered about the cost of manhours lost daily on the road. Business activities were paralysed for a good part of last week in the port city of Apapa as a result of bad roads and heavy rain that created flash floods and hampered free flow of traffic in the area. Many commuters spent between five and six hours in traffic to get to their offices in Apapa between Monday and Thursday. For several days up till this week, Lagos Traffic Radio advised people without very serious businesses to transact in Apapa to refrain heading that way. “On Wednesday last week, I got to my office in Apapa from Palmgrove at 12.30 pm even when I left home at 7am,” one public relations personnel told **Daily Independent**, stressing that it has been particularly very difficult these last few days. “I will not go to Apapa again. Imagine, we moved from Cele Express Bus Stop at 6am but arrived Liverpool, Apapa at 9am, I have never experienced it like this before, before I could return to my shop in Idimu, the day was almost over,” a petty trader who comes to Apapa occasionally to buy aquatic foods told Daily Independent. Customs brokers under the aegis of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) resolved on Tuesday to cooperate with other stakeholders to strategise on the best way to tackle the menace of road infrastructure, which is completely broken down. They said at their National Executive Committee (NECOM) meeting in Lagos that the situation of the road is affecting cargo delivery, endangering lives of workers in and around Apapa and generally making life unbearable for Nigerians. However, the association resolved to take more drastic approach to pressure government to intervene in order to save lives of Nigerians suffering and dying regularly on the roads. Also, to force government to become alive to its responsibility, Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), an affiliate of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), early last week, gave the Federal Government two months to fix the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway to avoid fuel scarcity. Although the union is not contemplating a strike action, it might be impossible to access the tank farms along the axis and lift the petroleum products if the roads are not repaired, according to PTD National Public Relations Officer, Comrade Adebayo Atanda. Atanda said if the rain continues with the same intensity it has been falling in recent weeks, it might not take more than two months before the road fails and Apapa becomes inaccessible. According to Atanda, 56 tank farms are located in Lagos State alone, out of which 35 are located along the Kirikiri, Trinity junction axis along the wharf/Tin can road. This is where the condition of the road is most deplorable, causing extreme inconvenience to residents, tanker drivers and other road users. He said the PTD is worried because that is the only road plied by all its members nationwide. He said PTD has often been at the butt of criticisms as residents and the government usually find it convenient to blame members of his union for creating problems on the road. At a time, he explained, the state government approved that his men could be parking only on service lanes, but these lanes are now so bad that they can no longer serve the purpose thereby forcing the drivers to get back on the road. It will be recalled that the federal government awarded a N6billion-contract in November 2010 for the rehabilitation of the expressway. The contract, which was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), involves the rehabilitation of the road from Km 0 to Km 15. While Borini Prono starts from Km 0 and ends at Km 7 (Apapa-Tin Can Island Port to the Sunrise Bridge/Beach Land Estate junction); Julius Berger, the German construction giant, starts from here to Cele Bus-Stop (Km 7 to Km 15). Whereas Julius Berger has pushed the rehabilitation work on the Oshodi-bound carriageway to an encouraging extent, Borini Prono seems to have gone to sleep, succeeding in only clearing the site for the proposed truck park along the expressway and also casting the pillars for the proposed bridge that will lead to the truck park. Four years after, commuters and businesses on the Apapa-bound and Oshodi-bound carriageways have worse tales of woe to tell as this portion of the expressway has gone from bad to worse, leading to endless and life-threatening gridlock. But Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, has made endless promises on early completion of the project. However, while admitting the slow pace of work, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Oluwatoyin Obikoya, said work on the Oshodi/Apapa Expressway has reached 38 per cent completion. Obikoya said the high volume of vehicles, indiscriminate parking of articulated vehicles and reckless driving have slowed down the pace of work. But the Engineer in charge of the reconstruction of the Oshodi/Apapa Expressway in Lagos, Mrs Adigom-Vivienne Aniagoh said that the project had reached 65 per cent completion. She also blamed indiscriminate parking of articulated vehicles on the highway, which causes traffic, for the slow progress of work. She noted that the vehicles were waiting to carry petroleum products from Apapa. Hundreds of trucks and tankers line up on the road from Ijora Bridge through Barracks Bus Stop to the front of Lagos Port Complex, Apapa and from Mile 2 through Coconut Bus Stop past Tin Can Island Port second gate on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway on a daily basis. Sometimes, the trucks leave only narrow lanes through which other vehicles meander. Apart from the indiscriminate parking of trucks on the road, the activities of policemen attached to Area B Command of the Nigeria Police Force is also said to be taking a toll on the traffic situation. “They collect money at Barracks Bus Stop right in front of the police station from the truck drivers and in the course of stopping the trucks to collect money from them, they create traffic,” a resident of Apapa said. Apapa community hosts two of Nigeria’s major seaports, several tank farms and petroleum jetties. Tank farms within the area are particularly a significant factor in the traffic gridlock. But relocation of tank farms and construction of Truck Park, for trucks plying the ports, is expected to significantly eliminate traffic gridlock in Apapa. Federal government set up a committee to consider the suitability of locating tank farms along the Apapa/Oshodi Express Way and the port corridors in Apapa last year following the explosion that occurred on a tanker barge discharging products at MRS tank farm within the Tin Can Island Port. Sadly, nothing came out of that committee over one year after. It was gathered that the Nigerian Navy had issued a stern warning against the construction of tank farms in clusters at Tin Can Port. The Navy reportedly came up with a report of a study that if there is an explosion in Apapa with the tank farms it could sink the entire Apapa because of the closeness of the tank farms, and recommended that they should be relocated to remote areas away from the city. Nigerians have flayed government over its decision to grant approval for construction of such combustible facility close to a densely populated area, ignoring safety concerns raised so hitherto. They want government to take action now before a collateral damage is done by another fire. A committee was reportedly constituted during the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo that recommended for the relocation of tank farms to Sagamu, Ogun State. The argument of the operators then was that Ibafon, where the tank farms are located now, was a forest before tanks were built, and that the construction of Apapa/Oshodi Express Way linking Apapa brought about the rapid development of the area. Safety experts said tank farms ought to be quarantined or isolated and there should be no office or residence built within 1000 meters radius. However, some experts blame attitude of Nigerians for the threats caused by tank farms, because there is a disregard for laid down rules and regulations even for issues pertaining to safety of lives and properties. This brings the issue of town planning authority to focus. They ought to ensure all the rules governing building of residences or offices complex are strictly adhered to, meaning, if a particular location has been designated residential or industrial, it should strictly serve the purpose unlike in Nigeria today, where even chemical industry can share same fence with a residential quarters.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 11:13:07 +0000
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