The Minister of Power, Works and
Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, says
the Federal Government would re-
introduce highway tolling to raise
additional funds to finance road
infrastructure and ensure efficient road
maintenance.
Fashola said this on Tuesday in Abuja
during his first news conference
tagged “Setting the Agenda for
Delivering Change”.
He said that adequate funding of the
nation’s road infrastructure would
generate job opportunities and reduce
unemployment in the country.
“Maintenance would be our watchword.
We are setting up a robust
maintenance regime to keep our
highways in good shape.
“This shows that tolling is necessary to
support government funding. So, it will
not be too much if we ask every road
user to pay little to augment
government funding for road
maintenance.
“It is eminent commonsense for us to
find that money. We will use
technology; so if we don’t pay cash,
you will pay by tokens or tickets and
the money is accountable and it will go
to the right place.
“We will manage that fund properly
and we will hold those who we put
there to account.”
He said that as a short-term strategy,
the ministry would start with quick
completion of ongoing inter-state roads
in order to facilitate connectivity, before
working on those that bear heavy
traffic.
“We commit all our skills, energies, and
collective integrity unreservedly to
playing our part, but how much
success we deliver is dependent also
on the citizens’ commitment to their
own part.’’
The minister observed that lack of
funding had caused many construction
companies to retrench their workers
due to the huge debts owed them by
the various tiers of government.
He said that with adequate budgetary
allocations, the three ministries have
an enormous role to play in
repositioning the economy and creating
jobs.
“Clearly, good roads will help reposition
and grow our economy, reduce travel
time, cost of transportation of goods
and services, and restore jobs that
have been lost to transport-dependent
services.
“Some of the numbers from only four
construction companies that were
sampled, suggest that at least 5,150
workers have been laid off as at March
11, 2015.
“If each contractor has only 100
employees at each of the 200 contract
sites, it means at least that 20,000
people who lost their jobs can return to
work,if the right budget is put in place
and funded for contractors to get paid.
“The possibility to return those who
have just lost their jobs back to work is
the kind of change that we expect to
see by this short-term strategy.”
Fashola further said that the ministry
would soon embark on enforcement of
the right of way by dismantling all
illegal structures infringing on the
highways.
He advised persons infringing on the
right of way to voluntarily dismantle
the inappropriate structures before the
government commenced the demolition
of such structures.
“In order to make the roads safer, we
intend to re-claim the full width of all
Federal roads, representing 16 per cent
and about 36,000km of Nigeria’s road
network.
“We are immediately now asking all
those who are infringing on our
highways, whether by parking, trading,
or erection of any inappropriate
structure to immediately remove,
relocate or dismantle such things
voluntarily.
“This will be the biggest contribution
that citizens can offer our country as
proof that we all want things to change
for the better,” the minister said. (NAN)


http://leadership.ng/news/481760/road-infrastructure-fg-re-introduce-tolls-fashola

K

I saw ds coming....

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all na chanji....fashola