(http://fmi.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Road-construction-300x179.jpg) The chairman, House Committee on Works, Ogbuefi Ozongbachi, has said that 60 per cent of the 300,000 km of federal roads in the country is in deplorable condition.
Ozongbachi who led eight members of the House Committee on Works on an oversight tour of federal roads in Abia, explained that less than 30,000 km of the roads were properly paved and blamed the incessant road failure in the country on poor quality of work by the contractors.
He said that government had invested huge resources in the provision of good road network across the country.
He however, expressed regrets over the rate of road dilapidation in the country and attributed the development to the inability of the contractors to comply with standard specification in the bill of engineering and measurement.
Ozongbachi said that the Committee was adequately armed with relevant technological and mechanical equipment to do thorough assessment of the quality of the roads.
He commended Abia and other States for intervening in the rehabilitation of dilapidated federal roads in their areas. He charged them to seek federal government's approval for reimbursement, adding that over N20 Billion was provided and set aside for the purpose in this year's budget.
While responding, the Governor noted that majority of the roads in the South East were devastated by the civil war and expressed the urgency to revamp the decayed war torn infrastructure considering the critical importance of roads.
Orji regretted that the governments in the zone lacked the enormous resources required for the reconstruction of the roads and called for the Federal Government's intervention.
He lamented that road contracts awarded by the Federal Government in the State were abandoned by the contractors due to lack of mobilization by the Federal Government. The Governor appealed to the Committee to address the issue of disappearance of some Abia roads from the federal budget with a view to making financial provisions for them and ensure that contractors who have abandoned site return to work. He cited the case of the Arochukwu-Ohafia Road as well as N2 Billion Olokoro-Ahiaukwu Road, as instances of some of the ill-fated abandoned roads in the State.
He further condemned the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and some federal contractors for doing dissatisfying, shoddy jobs in the State and requested that road contracts in the State should be awarded to reputable contractors.
Orji expressed the hope that the visit would facilitate the reimbursement of the N14.6 Billion expended by the State on the rehabilitation of some federal roads in the State.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen later, Ozongbachi gave the assurance that contracts awarded by the Federal Government in the zone, including the construction of the second Niger Bridge, would be completed as efforts to commence the PPP arrangement has reached its final stage.
He promised that the recommendations of the Committee would be submitted to the leadership of the House of Representatives to be automatically implemented since anything that concerns the grassroots is of major concern.
Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria