The Minister of Works Mike Onolememen has expressed confidence that the nation’s roads will be passable by the end of this year.
This is the ministry has launched a new programme called ‘Project Safe Passage as part of efforts to check the high rate road accidents on country’s highways.
The minister, who made this revelation during a consultative meeting with road sector contractors in the country in Abuja yesterday, said “the initiative is to ensure that, by December 2012, Nigerians will be able to experience good road corridors devoid of potholes, which will in turn promote safe motoring and passage on federal roads across the country.”
He stated that the strategy would ensure that contractors engaged by the ministry and the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) take immediate steps to recover all sections of their road alignments that have failed or are pot-hole ridden as a matter of urgency, before proceeding with normal programme of works for their individual contracts.
In this regard, contractors handling various road projects in the country have been paid all outstanding certificates on all projects in order to meet the government’s aim of ensuring safe motorable roads by the end of the year.
Owing to this, those contractors handling ongoing road projects have been directed by the minister to submit their programme of works for the safe passage initiative within the next seven days.
Onolememen warned erring contractors of government’s resolve to severely punish anyone who runs foul of the directive.