In what is aimed at tackling the chaotic traffic situation in and around Lagos, the state government has recruited 1,000 additional personnel to strengthen the operations of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA).
The new recruits who are currently receiving training and tutorials would be deployed on the roads before the yuletide season, just as the operational period of LASTMA is being extended from 5am to 12 midnight, especially in areas and routes where traffic is unusually heavy. The government said it was also working on other measures to ensure unhindered flow of traffic across the state ahead of the yuletide.
Rising from a strategic session chaired by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and attended by officials of the Ministry of Transportation, LASTMA and the commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, among others, on Thursday, the government said everything was being done to resolve the gridlock challenge.
The commissioner for transportation, Ladi Lawanson, who addressed journalists after the meeting, said: “We know that Lagosians have been going through some hardship occasioned by the gridlock we have in the Apapa area for which the Lagos State Executive Council has a solution in sight. All we are going through now is approval process that is required to activate the solution.
“What we have done is that we have gotten feedback from men and women who have been on the frontline specifically our LASTMA officials and the Commissioner of Police.”
Lawanson explained that some of the strategies that would be adopted was the recruitment of 1,000 personnel recently by the agency, and would be trained and deployed to the road before the end of the year.
He said the agency had also resolved to extend its operations from 5am to 12 midnight on a daily basis, saying that while the state government continued its palliative on potholes, LASTMA officials would be on ground to ensure free flow of traffic across those areas.
“On the issue of palliative on the roads, the meeting resolved to handle it in two ways; day time and night time. Night time mostly with travel signal lights and flood lights on ground for palliative to be made immediately from today, action would be seen that palliative will come and there would be smooth flow of traffic.”
The government also assured that the trailer park in Orile-Iganmu would be delivered ‘very soon’ and expressed optimism that it would go a long way to address the issue of trailers parking along roads and bridges and causing congestion on such routes.
“The issue of the trailer park which is in the front burner is being given expedite action and we are sure that in a short while we should have the trailer park effective to cushion the effect of the standoff trailers along the bridges and other places so the trailer park is given a special and strategic attention and that palliative would be concluded very shortly as fast as the speed of light,” he said.
