DEVELOPMENT :AMBODE KICK-STARTS EXPANSION OF ORILE TRUCK TERMINAL
Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday kick started the expansion of the 1000-capacity ABAT Truck Terminal in Orile-Iganmu.
The work on the terminal, which is meant to take trucks parked indiscriminately on Lagos roads and bridges especially in the Apapa axis, would be accelerated, Ambode said.
Gov Ambode, who toured some ongoing projects in the state, said the project was aimed at taking containerized trucks off the roads, to ease the Apapa gridlock.
He said: “One of the resolutions is that we should have authorized truck terminal Park and so my visit to this place today is to flag off the reconstruction of this terminal so that we can accommodate 1000 trucks.
“We would do this in collaboration with the Nigeria Ports Authority so that the call-up system can work efficiently. The expansion we are adding to this particular terminal in which we have decided to acquire the adjoining land, we would use that primarily for non-petroleum trucks so that we can sectionalize these trucks and allow the call-up system to work
“This is just part of the efforts that the state government is making to ensure this Apapa gridlock and the truck menace becomes a thing of the past permanently.”
Ambode said the government would also utilise a land in Ijanikin that can take at least 5,000 trucks.
“I have just been briefed that we have an additional land space in Ijanikin that can accommodate 5000 trucks. We will explore that possibility immediately; all that we are doing is just to make sure that there is a permanent solution to this whole idea of trucks destroying our bridges and roads,” he said.
The governor promised that the terminals would be ready within six to eight weeks.
He noted that the Federal Government’s plan to reconstruct the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway was on course, with the approval of N72.9billion for the project.
THE NATION
