By Miriam Humbe
The federal government has assured that the Abuja-Lokoja road under construction will be completed and commissioned in December this year.
Minister of Works, Arc. Mike Onolememen, revealed this during the ministerial press briefing on the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in the transformation of the road sector in Abuja.
Onolememen attributed the success of the project to the advent of the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P which ensured additional funding of selected projects in the road sector resulting in enhanced service delivery.
He said: “It led to the remarkable progress witnessed in 2013 on the dualisation of of five key arterial roads across the six geo-political zones of our country. These are the dualisation of the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja highway, Kano-Maiduguri highway, the reconstruction of Onithsa-Enugu-Port-Harcourt express way, Benin-Ore-Shagamu expressway and Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan expressway”.
Travel time according to the minister, has drastically reduced on the nation’s highways and passengers now enjoy better services in road transportation while some transport companies such as luxury bus owners have slashed their transport fares in response to the remarkable improvement and expansion of the federal highways.
In spite of the insecurity in some parts of the north, Onolememen said work has continued with some road projects being completed which includes; the rehabilitation of Uba-Mbalala road in Borno state, rehabilitation of Funtua-Gusau-Sokoto road and emergency reinstatement of collapsed section of Gombe-Potiskum at kilometre and completion of rehabilitation of Katsina-Daura road, among others.
