Dike Onwuamaeze
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has directed contractors handling the various roads maintenance across the country to remobilise to sites in a move to achieve shorter travel time and better travel experience in the coming Yuletide months across the country.
Fashola assured the contractors that they would receive their payment before the end of the year.
He gave the directive when he presided over a result-focused meeting in Abuja, which had the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi; representatives of Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA); Government Contractors and the Federal Controllers of Works from the States
The minister said it was expedient for the major stakeholders in the road sector to brainstorm over the issue of smooth travel experience for commuters as the Christmas and New Year festivities were around the corner.
Fashola said: “Because our work is interconnected, the contractors on one hand, the FRSC, on the other hand, who are on the roads every day, managing traffic, interface with the commuters, our maintenance agency, FERMA. I thought that as we normally do every year before December, we should all meet again as we get out of the rainy season and start planning for the EMBER month.
“The benefit of this season is that the weather is dry, more building and construction work can take place, quarrying will be able to progress, stabilisation work will be easy as water recedes; but the major problem of the season will be vehicular traffic, people travelling on holidays, importers and exporters moving more goods to meet the season’s demands; all those who want to eat turkey, celebrate marriages and all of that. We must plan for those people, which is why we are here,” he said.
Fashola urged contractors to intervene especially on roads that fall within the purview of their ongoing contracts or which were contiguous with their contracts so they could carry out emergency works on such roads to enable smooth travel experiences for commuters during the festive season.
Oyeyemi, who gave an overview of the audit report compiled by his commission about the conditions of certain portions of the roads that need urgent attention across the country, said the audit of road conditions in the country by the FRSC was necessitated by the need to evolve strategies that would ensure that the heavy movement of citizens usually associated with the end of the year did not lead to road traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities.
The FRSC boss said: “The 2019 Operation Zero was initiated to vigorously enforce road traffic rules and educate road users while embarking on strategic engineering to reduce road traffic crashes on Nigerian roads”, adding that a survey of critical corridors was made nationwide to identify areas in urgent need of attention “as Nigerians across board are always on the road for business, pleasure and celebration.”
He said the repairs of the identified bad parts on the major corridors would go a long way to aid smooth vehicular movement during the festive period and consequently reduce injuries and fatality on Nigerian roads.
The corps marshal enjoined commuters to obey traffic rules and signs, especially on roads under construction or rehabilitation in order to achieve sanity on the roads.
He, however, warned that the FRSC would enforce the law on the roads during the period. He added that the Corps would soon embark on mass enlightenment of the public before enforcing the law.
