NPA moves to decongest roads within Lagos ports

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Monday descried the high number of abandoned broken down trucks within Lagos ports. The port management said that abandoned trucks were impeding the flow of traffic and prompt delivery of imported cargoes to destinations. The Apapa Port Manager, Mr Mohammed Nasir, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. He said that NPA would not tolerate the situation and was making efforts to open up the roads. Nasir said that the NPA was clamping tyres of vehicles parked indiscriminately on access roads inside the ports. “We expect any truck that picks a cargo, especially with a container, to move out of the port. “If they don’t wait inside the terminal, why should they take their cargo and come out and wait on our access roads, creating inconveniences and encumbrances for other port users. “So, obviously, we have a responsibility to ensure that all our access roads inside the port are free of trucks. “We also have continued to sensitise and educate stakeholders that accesses roads within the ports must be free from any encumbrance,” he said. Nasir also said NPA would enforce standard on trucks operating within the ports, stressing that rickety trucks, which were more likely to be unserviceable, would n longer be allowed. “Various efforts are ongoing, including synergising with some private operators who are disposed to bringing new trucks into the haulage business. “The newer the truck, the more efficient it becomes to operate both inside the port and out of the port to anywhere including the hinterlands,” Nasir said. The port manager said that NPA had plans to introduce weighbridges to check overloaded trucks from the terminals. “We are beginning to liaise with the terminals to ensure that they use weighbridges because we have had cases of overloaded trucks crashing somewhere in the middle as they are coming out,” he said. NAN reports that some maritime stakeholders, had at a recent meeting held at the Apapa Customs Command, expressed displeasure over clamping of their trucks within the ports. (NAN)