(http://fmi.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/DSC_0004-300x199.jpg) The Federal Government says it is adopting a new approach in the maintenance of the country's road infrastructure with the support of the World and the Africa Development Bank (ADB).
Minister of Works, Arc. Mike Onolememen made this known on Monday during an inspection of a Segment of the Lokoja -Benin Road in company of the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku and other members of the National Good Governance Tour team.
He said "We are changing the governance structure of the maintenance of roads in this country. All the major dual carriage ways and roads we are engaged in right now in this country, once they are completed, we are commencing output based maintenance contracting.
According to Arc. Onolememen, under the new arrangement, his ministry will engage major contractors on all road corridors who will maintain road infrastructure on a 24 hour basis all year round. "So we will not have to wait for the roads to deteriorate before we start awarding contract", the Minister pointed out.
"That is the Output Based Maintenance Contracting which we have evolved with the support of the World Bank. We have been working on it and as we speak the Ogoja to Ikom and the Abakaliki to Ikom projects we are doing under the Road Sector Development Team of the Federal Ministry of Works is in collaboration with the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank".
"It is a model we want to really transfer to all our major alignments once we have finished the ongoing construction work across the country", he further hinted.
He also informed that his Ministry is working with the Federal Road Safety Commission on an aggressive markings of roads with a lot of safety signs.
The Minister said "If you recall, with our collaboration with the World Bank we have an IDA credit of about 330million U.S Dollars out of that, 10 million U.S dollars is devoted wholly to road safety issues like signs and education.
"As we speak we have been able to set up a well equipped control room for the FRSC. We have given them a lot of equipments- breathalyzers, ambulances, motorcycles, patrol vehicles and it is still work in progress, the Work Minister said.
Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria