The Delta State Commissioner for Transport, Mr Ben Igbakpa, has urged local governments in the state to establish off-street vehicle parks.
The commissioner, who made the call in an interview in Asaba last Sunday, said off-street parking would help to ease traffic in the capital and other towns in the state and also serve as veritable sources of revenue for the councils.
“Local governments should create off-street parking spaces to ease traffic in the cities. “The ministry is committed to ensuring free flow of traffic in Asaba, the state capital, and other parts of the state.
“It is within the jurisdictions of local governments to create alternative parking lots for vehicles,” Igbakpa said.
He said that the ministry had started closing down illegal parking lots and auto mechanic workshops obstructing traffic on major roads in the state.
Igbakpa disclosed that officials of the ministry haddisclosed begun a clampdown on people, who defaced the newly-built bus stops in the state and warned motorists to make effective use of the bus stops.
The commissioner warned that the ministry’s task force would henceforth arrest and prosecute motorists caught parking indiscriminately on the roads.
He condemned what he called violation of traffic regulations by commercial tricycle operators in the state and warned that errant operators would be punished.
On whether government will ban commercial tricycles, Igbakpa said, “government has no intention of banning them, but to regulate their activities to prevent accidents and loss of lives. “We will arrest any tricycle found on the highways; tricycles are smaller vehicles and should be made to ply safe and restricted roads for the passengers’ safety. So, it is wrong for tricycles to compete with trailers and other heavy duty vehicles on the highways.
“Besides, no responsive government will sit back and allow its people killed; we will regulate their activities and stop them from carrying overloading, parking in unauthorised places and check over-speeding,” he added.
Igbakpa, however, said that government might ban commercial tricycles if they posed danger to security and lives in the state.