FG Set to End Apapa Gridlock as Trailer Transit Park Reaches 95% Completion

Eromosele Abiodun

The pains being faced by commuters plying Apapa roads may soon come to an end as the trailer transit park being constructed to decongest the roads and provide parking lots for over 340 tankers who always park on major roads in Apapa is about 95 per cent completed.

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola disclosed this yesterday in his keynote address at the Women International Shipping and Trading Association ( WISTA) business luncheon held in Lagos yesterday.

Represented by his Special Assistant, Technical, Kabiru Hamzat, the minister said what is left of the trailer transit park is the shoreline designed to protect the park from ocean encroachment.

On the deplorable condition of Nigerian roads, he said as it is today, the federal government balance sheet cannot take care of the roads as the government controls 18 per cent of the road network in the country.

He added that the only option left for the government is to explore the public-private partnership (PPP) to ensure that roads are built and maintained in line with international standards.

“As the gridlock increases around Apapa port, some of the things we are doing is the trailer park because we must be able to get the trailers off the road. A 340 capacity trailer park at Apapa is about 96 percent completed. What is left is the shoreline protection because it was built facing the Apapa waters,” he said.

On the deplorable condition of the Nigerian roads, Fashola said as it is today, the federal government’s balance sheet cannot take care of the roads as the government controls 18 per cent of the road network in the country.

He added that the only option left for the government is to explore a public-private partnership (PPP) to ensure that roads are built and maintained in line with international standards.