By Steve Agbota
As part of its preparations for the commencement of commercial port operations, shareholders of Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited, promoters of Lekki Deep Sea Port, have approved the expedited construction of a truck park close to the gate of the port.
The unanimous decision took place during the company’s Extraordinary General Meeting which took place last week at the Administrative Office, Lekki Port, Free Zone, Ibeju Lekki, Lagos.
Shortly after the meeting, the Managing Director of the company, Mr. Du Ruogang, who presented the issue to the shareholders for approval, explained that the truck park was necessary for the efficient and effective operations of the container terminal, which will be operated by Lekki Freeport Terminal.
Ruogang added that the truck park would have an initial 153 truck parking slots, together with a security booth, offices and waiting area.
To ensure optimal proximity, the truck park will be located at the north boundary of Lekki Port, to prevent unnecessary queues at the port’s gate when commercial operations begin next year.
For his part, the Chief Operating Officer of the company, Mr. Laurence Smith, noted that the construction of the truck park would go a long way to reduce the chaotic traffic associated with existing ports and avoid indiscriminate parking of trucks on the access road to the port.
To support the truck park, Lekki Freeport Terminal will operate a vehicle booking system, which is widely used at all the major container terminals globally. This will ensure that trucks are called via a booking system and will prevent ad-hoc and 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 ease in cargo movement out of Lekki Port. The objective is to ensure that gridlock does not become part of Lekki Port”, he said.
