By Austine Uche-Ejeke
It has been tears, anguish and sorrow for most stakeholders as Lagos State government commences the much-awaited reconstruction of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road. The contract been powered and financed by Lagos State government will give the road a face lift and position it as a proper international airport road.
At a stakeholders meeting at the prestigious WELCOME CENTRE Hotel in September Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, explained that the road project will last for 18 months and will bring out the beauty of Lagos as it will attract more investors and visitors to the envisaged Mega City status of Lagos.
Currently, there are initial setbacks for motorists and commuters as the road project that starts from busy and boisterous Oshodi now causes neck breaking hold-up that stretches from Oshodi down to NAHCO Junction of the Airport Road.
The worst aspect of it is the decision of the contracting firm HITECH to carry out the excavation of both lanes of the road at the same time. Excavation of Oshodi to Airport end of the road is virtually completed but without sand filling and grading of the excavated portions.
This is causing washing away of the sand and creating big gullies on some sections of the road by virtue of torrential rains that has been falling. The kind of traffic the thing is causing is out of this world as most times both sides of the roads are locked up in terrible hold up! Stakeholders are of the view that the best thing handlers of the road would have done is to finish work on one side of the road before moving to the other side of the ever busy and all important International Airport Road!
Also, the Airport Road that is noted for high turnout of car dealership has been affected by the road reconstruction. Most car dealers have been chased out of their business premises and there are serious complaints by some of them of being knocked out of business.
Artisans and shop owners have also been displaced and there is daily wailing and gnashing of teeth by the owners of shops demolished and displaced as their only means of livelihoods have been shattered!
For years Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road has been an eye sore and source of monumental national embarrassment and disgrace as the road is bumpy, dilapidated, full of potholes, narrow and flooded whenever it rains. Many shanties and illegal structures can be seen along this very all-important airport Road.
The worst aspect of it is that recalcitrant tank drivers have taken over a sizeable portion of the road before NAHCO Junction thereby impeding free flow of traffic most times!
And the notorious yellow buses and rickety vehicles that ply the road daily make menace of the road and also make plying the road very nauseating.
This is the major road that first-time visitors, foreigners and tourists pass through once they land in the country!
If the tempo of work on the international airport Road is sustained at the rate that it is going now, the contracting firm HITECH may finish the work before their scheduled time. The company owned by Former Lagos state Governor and national leader of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) so far is giving good account of themselves but the supervising ministry in Lagos state should closely monitor their work to ensure that agreed standards are maintained and the allocated timeline for the contact is religiously adhered to.
It is the hope of Lagosians that Lagos State government will not only stop at constructing ten Lane for the airport Road but also use the opportunity to apply some basic aesthetics to beautify the road. Just like what we see in other developed climes where on disembarkment from the aircraft travellers/visitors are welcomed with state of the art world class airport Road. Even the road at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport is a thing of beauty to behold by visitors to the nation’s Federal Capital Territory!
Flowers and trees should be planted from the beginning to the end and daily maintenance of the road should be carried out. Functional street light should be erected, and it may not be out of place to suggest that Lagos state government install solar powered electricity that will be a one-off expenditure unlike the recently donated dozens of generators to police stations in Lagos that will require fuelling and maintenance of the generators!
Also, a suggestion is made that a special task force be constituted to maintain, monitor and keep the road in excellent condition all the time.
The activities of yellow Danfo buses, okay as, keke marwas with their recalcitrant drivers and conductors should be done away with immediately the road project is completed. Also, area boys, urchins, miscreants, hooligans and touts that daily embarrass and extort money from motorists and passerby should be consigned to the garbage where they rightly belong to.
Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road should be a global and an international Road just like the name implies. Anything short of this will not be accepted!
Austine Uche Ejeke, publisher and editor-in-chief, AGENDA community newspaper and public affairs analyst wrote vide eaustineuche@yahoo.com
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