FG has so far committed N300bn on road infrastructure - Fashola
- Babatunde Fashola, the minister of power, works and housing, says he inherited a budget of N18bn from the previous administration
- He states that the government has identified six priority areas of road that needed urgent attention
- The minister says 300 roads across Nigeria are under construction
The federal government on Thursday, May 10, in Abuja said that it had committed N300 billion so far on road infrastructure compared to only N18 billion which the previous administration spent.
Babatunde Fashola, the minister of power, works and housing, said this during the 4th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) with the theme: road infrastructure in Nigeria: impacts on petroleum products distribution, The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
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“It is one thing to have a plan, it is another thing to commit to the faithful implementation of that plan.
“Let me remind you that the budget I inherited from the ministry of works in the last administration was N18 billion for all the roads in Nigeria.
“Only N9 billion was paid out of the budget but the last budget in the state that I left for road was about N74 billion for one state, while the whole country budgeted N18 billion during the time of Transformation Agenda.
“That was when the country was earning about 100 dollars for one barrel of oil; but this is the time of economic recovery and growth plan which has committed close to N300 billion to road and with funding of about N260 billion.
“And this is happening when oil price is below 100 dollars per barrel; meaning that this administration is doing more with less resources.”
He said that the government had identified six priority areas of road that needed urgent attention.
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The minister noted that there was no state in the country where road construction or rehabilitation was not currently ongoing, adding that 300 roads across Nigeria were under construction.
He said the six areas of focus were the roads with the heaviest traffic (A1-A4 roads) like Lagos-Shagamu, Ore-Benin, Enugu-Onitsha and Calabar.
Meanwhile, Babatunde Fashola has announced the approval of approved N64.108 billion for additional works on section one of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway by the Federal Executive Council.
Daily Trust reports that Fashola the additional works of the project is about 43.6 kilometers including the construction of pedestrian bridges and toll plazas as well as modification of the quality of bitumen.
Legit.ng gathered that the minister noted that the approval was aimed at accommodating the changing nature of the road.
He said that the contractor had gone back to site on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
A ride on the Abuja-Kaduna railway on Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
