THE management consultant who won the bid to run the Tin-Can Island Truck Park, MOB Integrated Services Limited, has said that it will spend N180million to upgrade facilities before it can optimally be put into operation.
Speaking to Vanguard Maritime Report, Chief Operating Officer of the firm, Mr. Tokunbo Ezekwe, said that the truck park has capacity for 400 trucks adding that the company has fine-tuned its strategies to bring about a seamless truck park management to ease the perennial gridlock in Tincan, Apapa.
Ezekwe also said the Park will have an automated gate that will check the movement of trucks in and out of the facility adding that a barcode system will also be deployed to improve on the current NPA system on how trucks are called up to enter the ports to load.
Explaining further, Ezekwe stated that the toilets and bathrooms were ready; adding that Close Circuit Cameras will be mounted at strategic points within and around the Park just as a screen will also be mounted at the gate to know spaces available. According to him, screens are also inside for drivers to be prompted to know when it is their turn to exit the park. He also said consultations will be done with NPA and shipping lines on what is needed at the port instead of all trucks just heading to the port with the hopes of getting business hence causing gridlock.
He disclosed that Lagos Tin Can port alone receives about 2,500 trucks daily noting that such huge number of trucks cannot enter the port at the same time hence the need to manage their entry and exit on a daily basis cannot be overemphasized.
He also noted that the human inter-face in the management of truck movement into the ports has also been a major issue that is hampering an orderly call up of trucks.
He said: “Apapa is a national embarrassment, successful people look for solution to problems, we have come as a company to manage the Tin-Can Truck Park effectively.”
The MOB boss explained that the responsibility of trucks going in and out of the ports was that of the Nigerian Ports Authority and terminal operators adding that “managers of truck parks will just key into their system and improve on it.”