By Uzor Odigbo
As a way of addressing the perennial gridlock bedeviling Apapa port access roads in Lagos, management of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has decided to convert Lily-pond terminal in Ijora to a truck park.
Confirming this, Engr. Adams Jatto, NPA’s General Manager in charge of Public Affairs, said the move became imperative as a way of addressing the traffic crises facing Lagos ports.
He disclosed that NPA had to revoke a five year lease agreement it had earlier entered with Lilypond Container Terminal Limited to achieve this.
According to excepts from the Journal Magazine, the authority will resume activities there to do some expansion work and ascertain the number of trucks to be accommodated at the Ijora facility.
He added that NPA will adopt an orderly electronic call up system for trucks to be parked in the terminal before they access the ports in Lagos to address the traffic issues.
Jatto had earlier disclosed that NPA leased it out with effect from September 2018 after its initial 10 year lease expired in 2016.
Jatto said in a statement that: “Lilypond Container Terminal was erroneously concessioned ab-initio, this was because the said terminal does not have a water front for loading and offloading of cargo.
“Consequently, after the expiration of the lease, the terminal was however reclassified and granted a five year development lease. ”
Findings indicate that NPA made a total of N565,142,063:36 from lease of the facility in 2017 and N560,734,047: 00 in 2018. This makes a total of less than N1.2m in two years.
With the revocation, container terminal operator, APM Terminals Apapa, may have lost influence over control of the facility.
Clearing agents operating at the terminal had complained of about 300 job loss due to the idle state of the facility and alleged refusal by APMT to stem containers there.