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| Advancing Imo State's Investing Drive - The Stake of Transportation |
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| Written by Michael Osuji | ||||||
| Thursday, 12 June 2008 | ||||||
     And as without adequate blood flow in the body an individual is bound to have stunted growth, so it is with every economy such that without free flow in movement and transportation, a city is bound to be stunted in its growth and growth potentials. This is indeed true for a city like Owerri. A city for which it has been over 30 years since becoming a state capital, truly, the situation is not encouraging. Moving through the "arteries" of Owerri, one is bound to be held up in traffic several times before arriving at his/her destination. I personally noticed this and have seen that the roads are not wide enough, but this really is not the problem. The vehicles from Emekuku begin to loose their linear momentum as they approach the city centre. Those from Irete as well as every other road that links up with the city centre experiences this too. The reason may not be far fetched. Indeed, I am convinced that part of the problem may be traced to the too frequent use of traffic circles (roundabouts) and U-turns in the city centre. On a single major (distributor) road like Douglas Road, you can find as many as 3 u-turns within a distance less than 400m. whereas by Urban/Regional/Town planning standards, the minimum distance between junctions and intersections on such high order roads is 210meters. Douglas Road represents to Imo State what Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue and Ahmadu Bello way put together represent to Lagos and this sorry traffic situation being experienced on it makes people choose to use alternative routes when they have no particular business to transact on it. Unfortunately, as harmless as this may be on the ordinary, it however makes no room for new opportunities to be seized and new relationships to be established which otherwise would have been possible if people were freely plying the road and having the opportunity to look around i.e. they are not opportuned to see sights that may interest them. Interestingly, this is one of the three principles of spatial interaction and it I called ‘intervening opportunity’, the other two are regional complimentarity and spatial transferability. Thus, when there are no intervening opportunities, it is small wonder why the city has not expanded more than a few kilometers of what it has been since thirty years. With the case of traffic circles, i.e. roundabout, I see so much land being trapped in them. In many cases, the circumferences of the roundabouts are very large and highly unnecessary. As a matter of fact, using half of the quantity of land presently expended on them, the same purpose would be achieved while the remaining would be released into making the road wider for vehicle usage. One particular important area that needs attention in this regard is when you enter the city center from the Irete axis. For the very fact that the Maria Asumpta Cathedral is located there makes it necessary for thought to be given to the planning of this intersection. Secondly, the location of the NNPC Mega filling station which enjoys high patronage being about the only station in the state having the commodity at the control price and as such always having long queues which spills into the road leading to the intersection makes it also necessary for the junction to receive attention. It is improper for vehicles to be allowed to enter the Cathedral gate directly from the roundabout. This is an obvious cause of congestion on the road especially on Saturdays and Sundays when the venue is pretty busy. Vehicles intending to enter the Cathedral should be made to go U-turn on the Port Harcourt road before accessing the Cathedral gate so that the usefulness of the round about can be upheld by other road users. This is not the only roundabout that needs attention. A few others within the city have no business being there while others need modification. A traffic circle/roundabout is usually recommended where two major roads cross each other or where four high order roads converge. This simple rule was not entirely followed in erecting of roundabouts within the city. Its seems those who planned the roads did not expect the volume of traffic to grow this much relative to what it was when the plans were actually made. This again creates room to doubt how well planning standards were followed with the case of Owerri master plan.. It is either a case of poorly formulated Urban Planning Policies or the failure of preceding governments to address town planning issues. There is no doubt that Imo State is one of the most viable states for investment in Eastern Nigeria. Its close proximity to Onitsha, the largest market within the region is an asset. Its relative peace and tranquility is another plus and it’s yet to be saturated land mass leaves an opening that is inviting for investment. However, poorly planned cities discourage foreign investment. Investors need to know that they would not be trapped in the city while their businesses would be left unattended to. During my last visit to the state, I was able to ask some hotel attendants who confirmed my impression that their major customer were mainly indigenes of the state especially those who came in from abroad. This means that only rarely do business people come into the city from outside the state. The clean and green initiated of the present administration is very encouraging and the recent awards to the governor can attest to it, however, that alone is not enough to make the state environmentally impressive to attract investment. Michael Chukwuemeka Osuji, an indigene of Imo State is a student of Geography and Regional Planning at Olabisi Onabanjo Unversity, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State.  Quote this article on your site | Views: 403 | Print | E-mail
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