Government on Monday said it would reintroduce tolling on the nation’s highways
to raise the much needed funds to maintain the roads.
“The Federal Government is reconstructing and
rehabilitating 25 arterial roads with an aggressive plan to spend about N 16.7
bn for each geopolitical zone across the country.”
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola,
stated this while addressing members of the Manufacturers Association of
Nigeria, who visited him in his office in Abuja.
The minister’s position
may be an endorsement of the Senate’s proposal in July for the return of tolls
on federal roads and the setting aside of 0.5 percent of transport fares paid by
passengers on inter-state trips to generate funds for the rehabilitation and
maintenance of roads in the country .
Fashola said the tolling system
would only be introduced to road projects that had been completed by the
government.
Fashola gave some of the prioritised road projects as the
dualisation of Ibadan-Ilorin road, Suleja-Minna road, Kano-Maiduguri road and
Lokoja-Benin road, as well as the rehabilitation of the Enugu-Port Harcourt
Expressway and the construction of the Kaduna Eastern Bypass.
