The Project Manager, Tranport Sub-committee of the National Sports Festival (NSF), Ms Edugie Agbonlahor on Saturday disclosed that about 120 vehicles were deployed for the movement of athletes and officials at the festival.
Agbonlahor, who disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin, the State Capital explained that the vehicles would shuttle between the games villages and festival’s venues.
The transport sub-committee head gave the breakdown of the vehicles to include 60 number 44 seaters, with hiase buses and cars making up the balance.
She stressed that the vehicles would be at the services of the officers and athletes for free courtesy of Edo Government.
She also disclosed that four designated parking lots have been created around the main venue of the games, Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, to ease flow of traffic around the area.
According to her, the vehicles are deployed to ease movement of those that may not be familiar with the terrain and also to endure that areas are not congested unnecessarily.
“So, because they (visitors) are not too use to Benin, they will find it easy running on shuttle.
“As for the ease flow of traffic with the venues, games village and city at large, we are working in collaboration with the Edo State Traffic Management Agency (EDSTMA) in that regard.
“We have designated parking points for cars and buses around the events venues to ensure free flow of traffic.”
She further said as part of effort to ease transportation challenges for the officials and athletes, the sub-committee had set up transport information centres at four points.
Agbonlahor said the points included Ring road, Stadium, games villages at Ugbowo and Ekehuan.
NAN reports that the NSF, tagged Edo 2020, have suffered several postponements before it was finally slated to begin from April 4 and end on April 14, due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, although the opening ceremony for the festival had been scheduled for April 6, state contigents have been arriving Edo since Friday.
NAN reports that the 8,000 athletes, scaled down from the initial figure of 14,000, are expected to participate in the two-week sports fiesta
