Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — The Sifax Group plans to construct a $20 million Truck Park at the Lekki Port corridor to ease and manage truck movement within and around the port axis.
Already, Sifax has acquired a portion of land for about $11million that has capacity to accommodate 1,000 trucks at any point in time as sand filling of the waterlogged area has almost been completed.
SweetcrudeReports also learnt that Sifax is working in partnership with the Lekki Free Zone Development Company for that purpose.
A visit to the proposed truck park showed that besides the sand filling that almost completed, the entire expanse of land has been fenced awaiting other civil and engineering works.
Speaking on the development, the Deputy Managing Director of the Lekki Free Zone Development Company, Mrs. Bolatito Ajibode said that the engagement with the leadership of Sifax has reached an advantage state adding that construction works on the truck park has commenced.
Ajibode also said that the availability of land in that axis has become an issue noting the only available land in inside the Free Trade Zone that has over 3,000 hectares of land for any kind of business including truck parks.
She said: “We are partnering with Sifax and Sifax is going to manage our truck park and the phase one of that truck park will take 500 trucks while the phase two will take another 500 trucks. So, with a 1,000 trucks capacity and with efficiency, we are confident that we will not have a repeat of what is presently obtained in Apapa.
“When we started engaging Sifax, the first we did was to clear the land, we have cleared the land, we have reclaimed the land by sand filling it. So, the land is ready, and they have done their registration, so all is set and we have done the fence. You saw the fence, it is just for them to move in.
“If you go from Ibeju to Epe, it will be difficult for you to get hectares of land in one location and that is why Sifax has to come into Lekki Free Zone. We have 3000 hectares of land.
“The only reason in my view why I think these proposed truck park owners have failed is because they cannot get that large space of land outside of the Lekki Free Zone. I think that is the major reason, it is not that they do not want to. They do not have the land that is the truth.
“What we have here will probably be the main point of call the trucks coming into this axis. The Sifax truck park is going to be the biggest truck park.”
Sources close to Sifax disclosed that the truck park project was being kept under wraps as other investors were involved in the project.
