The Federal Government on Thursday said over 71 per cent of federal roads in Nigeria are currently in good condition and are motorable.
It said a total of N1.469tr had been spent on federal roads across the six geopolitical zones in the country since 2011.
The Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, stated that from about 5,000km of fair roads in 2011, Nigeria currently has about 25,000km of the 35,000km of federal roads in good and motorable condition.
Onolememen, in a statement from the Federal Ministry of Works, said the present administration inherited federal roads which were generally described as “death traps,” as many road projects were either abandoned or moving at snail speed due to paucity of funds.
According to him, some roads alignments in Nigeria presently, can compete favorably with roads in the developed parts of the world.
He added that throughout the six geo-political zones, travel times had reduced between origins and destinations, cost of vehicle maintenance had drastically reduced, while accidents and carnage on Nigerian roads had dropped due to better pavement design and construction.
Onolememen said economic goods were better distributed through the nation’s arterial roads with better turn-around times that lead to more profits for entrepreneurs.
The minister said the ministry was currently executing 184 contracts across the country, majority of which were inherited by the present administration.
He stated that progress had been made with the rehabilitation, construction and expansion of key arterial projects.
Onolememen outlined some of the challenges faced by his ministry since assumption of duty to include the insurgency in the North-East, excess axle load of trucks beyond acceptable tonnage on highways and indiscriminate cutting across the highways.
Others include burning of tyres on the roads, erection of bumps on roads, destruction of road furniture as well as encroachment on right of ways.
The statement noted that 30 road projects with total length of 1255.1km, worth N275.6bn, had been executed in the North-Central zone.
It said 27 projects with a length of 1287.7km and total cost of N319.1bn were executed in the North-East, while the North-West had 20 projects, 1040.2km long, and worth N157.1m.
The South-East, South-South and South-West, according to the statement, had 45, 32 and 30 road projects executed in the zones respectively.
It noted that with the advent of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, the government recorded remarkable progress in 2013 on the dualisation of four key arterial roads across the country. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
I am not a politician, but this is one of basic amenities gov own the people, at any point in time, and also should be a regular exercise, any gov shoukd not espect people to clap for them because they repair roads. Still it's appreciated, but we are too far behind, no constant electricity in all parts of the country in this modern day, it's a shame, if GEJ wants a clap, pls supprise Nigerians with more imposibilities, constant electricity, sign petroleum bill, issue more licence for private refineries, sign death warrant bill for corrupt officials, then you will be Mandela in Nigeria Or Obama.
ReplyDeleteNa lie....lets start with Apapa-Oshodi expressway
ReplyDeleteBig lie
ReplyDeleteWeldone jare GEJ u better pass our pap for southwest he spend 8yrs he no touch any road for southwest even the road frm lagos to abeokuta he no touch am for 8yrs kudos to you GEJ anybody that is not happy with that shld go andd hug transformer...pls after road elctricity shld follow but that sector their some satanic in that sector
ReplyDeleteThanks to God for his mercies in GEJ's time!
ReplyDeleteGood works! The deplorable state of roads leading to Apapa Port in Lagos is a embarrassing! Please the minister / his representative should come to Lagos to see it himself before celebrating because of the economic importance of the roads.
ReplyDelete