BUSINESS FG to build truck transit parks
Worried by increasing accidents on the highways with attendant loss of lives and property involving articulated vehicles, the Federal Government has embarked on a program that will see all trucks on Nigerian highways designated to transit parks on the highway corridors.
Already, transaction advisors have been advertised by the Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC), the promoter of the initiative, and investors will soon be prequalified.
As part of efforts to make the Truck Transit Park happen, the NSC, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Transportation, held a two-day national summit in Abuja on the establishment, management and operation of the TTPs in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary, NSC, Bar. Hassan Bello, told newsmen at the summit that the TTPs had become critical due to the menace and environmental degradation the trucks constituted.
“Truck Transit Parks are being promoted by the Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC) and it’s off the highway facility where articulated vehicles like tankers and trailers will park. If you move by road, even from Abuja to Kaduna, you might have noticed certain towns or villages where these trucks are parked indiscriminately. They cause a lot of havoc and environmental degradation. That’s not the way to do business. We need to have modern transport infrastructure.
“The parks will provide hotels, hostels, restaurants, gas stations and vast expanses of land - about 50 to 60 hectares,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, said the, “Federal Government plans over the next couple of years to develop TTPs at Lokoja in Kogi State, Obollo Afor in Enugu State, Ogere in Ogun State, Jebba in Kwara State and Port Novo Creek in Lagos State as alternative strategy to address the menace of truck congestion at the seaports in Apapa and Port Harcourt.
“These are meant to complement the Ore Sunshine City in Ondo State, and the ones being processed by the Kaduna State Government at Mararaban Jos, Bukuru and Tapa on the Kaduna-Abuja highway.