… FG assures on completing ongoing road projects
Journey time on East-West Road has dropped significantly by 28 percent to 10 hours following the ongoing reconstruction work by the Federal Government, which has improved the state of the road.
Travelling through the Benin-Ore Road used to be a nightmare for motorists and commuters, but that is gradually becoming a thing of the past as the contractor, RCC Nigeria Limited, which is handling the reconstruction of this road, has made considerable progress.
When BusinessDay travelled to the East from Lagos at the weekend, it was observed that, unlike before when construction equipment were sleeping on this route, workers were seen moving these equipment and getting work done where it should be.
Beyond Benin-Ore, it was also another pleasant experience passing through the Enugu-Onisha Road where the contractor was not only on site but was also doing quality work with the thickness of the asphalt on the road rising up to six inches, giving motorists smooth ride and accelerated movement.
As a result, travellers, mostly traders, from the Eastern part of the country can now leave home at 7am and be sure to arrive Lagos in the West at 5pm, as against their experience a couple of years ago when they would leave home by 7am and reach Lagos by 8pm and sometimes later.
“We started having this improvement in journey time late last year. It was not so easy for us in December, but that was understandable because of the Christmas season”, a businessman who identified himself as Emmanuel Okeke, explained to BusinessDay.
Okeke, who travels twice in a week from Enugu to Lagos on business trip, was optimistic that by the time both the Enugu-Onitsha and Benin-Ore roads were completed, “we may be going to Lagos in six-seven hours and you know what this means to us as businessmen who need all the time on earth”.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has said that it is committed to completing all ongoing road projects across the nation as part of President Muhammad Buhari’s mandate to get this economy out of recession and set it on the path of inclusive growth where money trickles down to the most vulnerable.
Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, who gave this assurance at the weekend during an inspection tour of road projects in Lagos, noted that the infrastructural renewal commitment of the federal government was giving various artisans and other construction professionals job opportunities.
Fashola explained that the ongoing road projects across the country were aimed to develop the nation’s infrastructure in order to improve commerce and bring the nation out of recession, assuring that government would back up training of artisans with an economic programme.
“There must be an economic programme and that programme is the infrastructural renewal that puts everybody to work from the architects to those who really build,” he said. He listed the Truck Park in Apapa, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Tin Can Island/Oworonshoki Expressway, Warff Road Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, and the Mosimi/Sagamu as some of the roads in the state receiving attention.
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