By David Akinmola
As part of the preparation for the commencement of commercial port operation, shareholders of Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited have approved the expedited construction of a truck park to enhance the ease of cargo movement and traffic control at the Lekki Deep Sea Port.
The decision was taken during the company’s general meeting held at the Lagos Free Zone, Ibeju Lekki, Lagos.
The Managing Director of the company, Du Ruogang, who presented the issue to shareholders for approval, explained that the truck park was necessary for efficient and effective operations of the container terminal, which will be operated by Lekki Freeport Terminal.
Ruogang added that the park would have an initial 153 truck parking slots with a security booth, offices, and waiting area.
To ensure optimal proximity, he said, the park would be located at the north boundary of Lekki port. This will prevent unnecessary queues at the port’s gate when commercial operations begin next year.
Chief Operating Officer of the company, Laurence Smith, said the construction would go a long way to reduce the chaotic traffic associated with existing ports and avoid indiscriminate parking of trucks on the access roads.
He said Lekki Freeport Terminal would operate a vehicle booking system, which is widely used at all the major container terminals globally, to support the truck park.
This, according to him, will ensure that trucks are called via a booking system to prevent ad-hoc allers from congesting the local road system.
“Once the truck park is constructed, one can rest assured that the challenges associated with loss of person-hours in traffic congestion and delays in port operations will be minimised. We are doing everything possible to ensure that there is the ease in cargo movement out of Lekki Port. The objective is to ensure that gridlock does not become associated with Lekki Port within the Lekki axis,” he said.
