The Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen is not comfortable with what he called low level of funding of the roads sector in the country, saying that it is unacceptable.
The minister, who spoke at the ongoing National Council on Works at Asaba, the Delta State capital today, said that government is looking towards the private sector and other sources to raise funds to maintain and continuously improve the roads.
He said currently, the Federal Government is spending about N1.8 trillion on federal roads across the country but that the level of funding is inadequate to protect the roads, which he said bear the load of more than 90 percent of freight transportation.
He said that government has already proposed a number of measures to get funding from the private sector and the general public to finance the roads and keep them in shape.
One of the measures is the reintroduction of tolling on the highways to attract private sector investment in roads; and the introduction of weighbridges to check overloading by vehicles using the highways.
“We are currently reviewing suggestions by stakeholders to determine their appropriateness on the basis of ‘user pays’ principle, as to stimulate private sector investments in road development in our country,” he said.
Onolememen added, “The 2014 National Council on Works will also focus on preservation of huge investments in the road sector through enforcement of axle load control on our road network.”
He said state governments and corporate bodies as well as transport unions have been enjoined to set up weighbridges in their facilities to help check the overloading of vehicles.
[myad]
