…As traffic congestion returns to Mile2-Tincan expressway
A weeks after the mile 2/Tin-can Islandressway was cleared of the chaotic traffic gridlock by combined efforts of the Lagos State government, the Nigerian Port Authority, NPA, and other government agencies; tanker drivers are virtually taken over this service lane and now extending to the main expressway.
A visit to the area by our reporter last week revealed 146 tankers queued up all the way from Ilasa to Mile2. It was chaotic seeing how tankers drove in through the expressway from Mile 2, thereby blocking the Sunrise bus stop, as well as West Minister and Coconut bus stop.
At such points, officials of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPEG, tried to clear the way for them.
A driver whose tanker was parked on the service lane (name withheld), claimed that his tanker had been in the queue along the service lane for almost two weeks while tankers belonging to their leaders and those who can pay the required N10,000 are allowed free access through the expressway.
The driver warned that should the present situation be left unchecked, other drivers would soon abandon the queuing arrangement and return to the express.
A car dealer at Berger yard, who identified himself as Chukwuemeka Eze, said the service lane of the Mile 2 to Berger yard end of that corridor is normally free until between four and five in the evening when it is taken over by tankers.
Eze noted that unless urgent measures are taken to check the activities of these tanker drivers, he said not just tankers but truckers will return in their numbers to block the expressway.
Recall that transporters along that corridor had complained that hoodlums who operate round the clock also apply violence in extorting unregulated levies on all goods-bearing trucks on the roads, even though the corridor has been cleared.
Truck transport services providers have, therefore threatened that unless the Lagos state government intervenes to remove the non-state actors the transporters may be forced to commence parking along the expressway, a situation which had resulted in the chaotic traffic gridlock on the port corridors for over ten years.
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