There Will Be No New Road Projects in 2016 – FG

There Will Be No New Road Projects in 2016 – FG

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, on Wednesday, stated that the federal government would not embark on any new road projects this year but rather focus on completing existing road projects.

Fashola spoke with newsmen after the weekly federal executive Council (FEC) meeting, reports Premium Times.

The minister stated that past administrations had awarded contracts for 206 roads at about N2trillion Naira, which were mostly unpaid for.

Fashola also spoke on the terrible state of some roads within the Federal Capital and the reason his ministry appears to be more interested in the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The former Lagos state governor said the roads went bad at a time when there were resources but the governments of the time refused to fix them.

“What we have done was first to say that we would not award any new road contract,” he said. “We would deal with the over 206 roads that have been awarded but not funded for over three years.”

Describing the Lagos-Ibadan road as a priority project, Fashola noted that the expressway bore the heaviest traffic in the country and that due to limited funding, his ministry was constrained to prioritise.

“Now the budget that we have for the three ministries that I superintend is in the region of 400 billion plus and 200billion Naira is dedicated to roads.

“So that is the deficit that we have to deal with and in making those choices we then have to deal not with roads that necessarily border us but roads that carry the heaviest traffic,” Fashola said.

On efforts to boost power supply across the country, the minister noted that efforts were being made to improve generation and transmission.

Concerning transmission, Fashola revealed that the FEC has approved the purchase of three transformers of 150 MVA to be installed in sub-stations of Shiroro in Niger, Osogbo in Osun and Kumbotso in Kano, as requested by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN.

The transformers, according to Fashola, will help government’s bid to “continue to reinforce, expand and maintain the existing transmission capacity.”