The Federal Government has committed a total sum of N300 billion for construction and reconstruction of various highways across the country under the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has said.
Fashola, Thursday, in his keynote address at the 4th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Branch of NUPENG, in Abuja, said the nation’s highways are seriously attracting tremendous attention of the current administration unlike the previous regimes.
The minister also said that his ministry was on the verge of getting procurement for the reconstruction of the Apapa-Mile 2-Wharf road.
The minister identified over-speeding by motorists as the highest cause of road crashes across the country, contrary to overwhelming belief that the poor state of the roads was the major culprit.
He said,” What has changed under ERGP, is that the Buhari government has committed close to N300 billion to roads and funded about N260 billion at a time when oil prices are manifestly below the 2015 figures.
“If you think this is not important, let me remind you that in 2015, only N18 billion was budgeted for all Nigerian roads in the Ministry of Works. Only N9bn was funded at the time, when Nigeria’s oil was selling at close to $100 per barrel,” he recalled.
He identified six priority areas in its road development agenda, including the ones that connect agricultural produce areas, those that lead to petroleum tank farms and depotsand comprehensive bridge repair programme, among others.
He stated that no state of the federation was left out in the roads development programme of the present government, putting the number of roads currently under construction nationwide at over 300, even as he stated that contractors had gone back to site on major road projects across the country.
Admonishing tanker drivers to ensure safety on the roads by eschewing unhealthy traffic behaviours, including taking those things that ‘clear their eyes,’ the minister assured that his ministry was desirous of bequeathing better road network across the country.
