By Uzor Odigbo
Truck owners are unhappy at the slow pace of the ongoing road construction along Tin Can – Mile 2 corridors along Apapa-Oshodi expressway in Lagos, calling on Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, to caution the contractor handling the project to expedite actions in completion.
Operators while reacting against the slow pace of work so far on the introduction of the electronic call up system by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) worried that out of the four phases of the road construction by the federal government , the aforementioned corridor has been a major issue that needs urgent attention .
The transporters also hinged the delay of the road completion on sabotage and lack of road sign equipment by Hi-Tech Construction Company Limited.
They also described the construction firm of high-handedness and disrespectful to government agencies and stakeholders.
According to them , the construction company lacks the right equipment for road construction saying many lives have been lost with high numbers of injuries recorded in the last one year.
Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa, former Vice Chairman, Dry Cargo Section, Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) in a chat on Tuesday, alleged that the company lack proper signage facility to direct the inflow of persons and vehicular movement along the road.
He alleged that lack of such facilities has led to loss of lives including motorcycle operators, maritime stakeholders and other commuters.
Inuwa maintained that the slow pace of the road construction has also frustrated the e-call up system introduced recently by the NPA calling on the Minister of Works, Mr. Babatunde Fashola to carryout first hand inspection on the road.
While expressing dissatisfaction on the road construction , he frowned at the poor management of traffic control inward the port of Tin Can Island by security operatives adding that the current personnel have not lived up to expectation in addressing the gridlock.
The NARTO Chief stressed that ” With what we are seeing the construction company has become an authority by themselves because this the only construction company I have seen working without signage or highway codes to direct inflow of traffic.
“There are naked iron rods littered everywhere along the corridor without any instructions for passengers and commuters to avoid that route. We have seen recorded cases of accidents leading to lost of lives as a result of this negligence from the construction company”,he lamented.
Similarly, Sylvester Keshiro, a chieftain of Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) , called on the Minister to visit the corridor for on -the -spot-assessment and evaluation of the road ,saying the construction firm was frustrating trade facilitation.
Keshiro called on the government to compel the construction company to expedite actions in fixing the road.
According to him, “Fashola should come to the corridor in question through the roads and not through the waterways because the delay is now constituting a nuisance. The construction company is acting like Buhari. They cannot take advice from stakeholders, they cannot listen to NPA because they felt the Ministry of Works gave them the contract and not NPA
