Okonkwo Samuel
There has been criticisms over the first flyover constructed by the administration of gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi at the popular T-Junction area of Enugu.
What most road users have come to accept is that the flyover has drastically reduced if not completely eliminated the traffic gridlocks on that junction. Before the construction of the flyover, road users are trapped on that axis for hours due to chaos occasioned by high volume of traffic.
However, those who criticize the flyover complain of the size of the service lane by both sides of the flyover. The one lane on the sides of the flyover was as a result of the buildings and houses of the citizens of the area. Some of the houses are even ancestral homes of the indigenes of that area.
Originally, the flyover was designed to have double lanes at both sides of the service lane but was amended in order to limit the numbers of houses that will be demolished.
Gov Ugwuanyi is a leader with a human face. He is not the type who would willfully inflict pains on his people. Demolishing people’s houses at this time of economic hardship will definitely not be for the best interest of the state. Many people would have been rendered homeless and businesses destroyed.
Some of those criticizing the one lane by the sides of the flyover would have been up in arms fighting the governor for demolishing people’s houses and making them homeless had he demolished the houses to expand the service lane.
These same critics are already attacking the govt for demolishing Kenyatta market. The same market that constituted and brought about traffic chaos in and around Uwani and Achara Layout. They are attacking the govt that painstakingly constructed another market for those in the Kenyatta market and relocated them.
To them, anything the governor does must be attacked. But what’s important today is that the construction of the flyover has resolved the problem of traffic jam in J-junction. Road users have attested to it and commended the governor for such legacy project.
Possibly, subsequent administrations can continue negotiations with owners of the houses, hotels and churches around the area and expand the service lanes if they begin to constitute traffic crisis in near future. But for now, the flyover has resolved the traffic crisis in J-junction Enugu.
Written by Eneh Victor Chigozie of AIF Media.
Daily News Reporters
