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The Federal Government has allayed the fears of the citizens over the completion of ongoing road projects across the country.
It said no new projects would be proposed for the next fiscal year as it would focus on completing ongoing projects.
The government said it had decided to focus resources on completing key initiatives that would fast-track the nation’s development.
Works Minister Dave Umahi announced this while addressing reporters yesterday in Abuja about his ministry’s scorecard in the past one year.
Umahi said the government remained resolute to complete its four legacy roads that are vital to enhancing the socioeconomic well-being of Nigerians and improving the country’s infrastructure landscape.
The minister restated the commitment of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope administration at completing the road projects it inherited from previous administrations.
He said though the government would pay more attention to completing ongoing roads, it would not abandon strategic new ones to ensure smooth movement of people, goods, and vehicles across the country.
Umahi explained that his ministry adopted new policies to ensure a paradigm shift aimed at delivering a quality and enduring road network for road users.
The minister said the changes were not only designed to ensure safer and more comfortable travel experience but were also expected to boost the socioeconomic standing of the people and the government.
He stressed that despite the progress the government had recorded, there were still some hurdles to scale to enable the government achieve the goals of its Renewed Hope Road Infrastructure Revolution.
Umahi expressed the government’s determination to address the obstacles so that the ambitious plans for transforming Nigeria’s road network could come to fruition.
The minister listed the challenges, among others, as poor funding of highway projects, including that of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) for effective road maintenance.
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According to him, the agency’s N52 billion in this year’s budget for capital projects is grossly inadequate to maintain the existing 36,000 kilometres of federal road network.
Also, Umahi decried the poor life span of projects completed by previous administrations as well as public destruction of road infrastructure, such as damaging drainages, bridge parapets, bridge decks, burning of tires on the road, indiscriminate parking, cutting of road, dumping of refuse on road median/drains, among other misdemeanours.
The minister said inflation affected the execution of highway projects, requiring reviews to reflect current realities, besides delays in project execution by some contractors.
Commenting on government’s efforts in the past one year, he said as of May 29, it inherited 2,064 projects spanning 18,932 kilometres with a total contract value of nearly N15 trillion.