The Lagos State Government has called on the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, to suspend further work on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway till after the Eid-el-Kabir Sallah Celebration. This is following the recent hardship experienced by motorists and residents along the expressway, with attendant gridlock due to the ongoing road reconstruction.
Reacting to the daily gridlock along the axis, Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, Engr. Abdulhafiz Toriola, told News personnel that the State Ministry of Transportation has approached the Controller of Works in Lagos State, of the need to suspend further work along the axis to ease off expected influx of vehicles and reduce hardship during the coming Eid-el-Kabir, Muslim celebration, scheduled to commence on Wednesday June 28.
Toriola, who expressed concern over the persistent gridlock on daily basis, said the Ministry of Transportation has directed the deployment of more Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA personnel, to boost traffic management pending the completion of the project slated for July ending.
According to him, “We proposed the opening up of completed parts of the road to motorists. This is necessary because of the Sallah holiday for those who will be travelling in and out of Lagos for the celebration. We are expecting a huge influx of vehicles on both sides of the road.
“The last Thursday, rolling into the weekend gridlock was simply hectic. It only shows that Lagos is over populated. All we can do is to effectively manage the situation through effective mechanism which we are already deploying with the Federal partner”.
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Works, through, the Controller, has promised to double their effort by working late into the evening to finish the job on time without further delay.
Engr. Abdulhafiz Toriola, however gave a travel advisory to motorists to make use of Ikorodu-Odogunyan Road to Sagamu and link their destination to reduce vehicular volume along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, as the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway is not an option due to the bad state of the road.
He therefore, appealed to motorists and residents to bear with the Government as everything is being done to address their plights. Toriola called for compliance with traffic signs and the directives of the traffic management personnel deployed, to ensure seamless movement within the corridor.
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