Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola yesterday hinted that contracts for 70 more roads have been awarded for rehabilitation as part of the measures to ease transportation. Fashola spoke when the Lagos and Ikeja branches of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) visited him at the state secretariat at Alausa, Ikeja.
The governor said with the award of the new contracts, the state had awarded contracts for the rehabilitation of 230 roads since the commencement of his second term in office.
He said: "We set ourselves the target in the second term to complete about 450 roads. Last year, we awarded about 160 roads. This year, we have awarded about 70 roads.
This signifies our intention this year that we are more concerned about road construction. "We have already completed about half of the roads we set out to achieve. But again, we can only award that much if we were able to complete much. That was why this year's project was based on completing the inner roads in the state.
The decision making for which road to deal with first, is based on the road that carries the most traffic. "The need continuously outstripped the source and so also they outstrip the capacity.
And what we have done this year was to identify the roads that needed urgent repair. And these are continuous engagement and undertaking from the state government. They will never finish in the tenure or life of any government.
"We are looking at things beyond us so that a new team can take over. And those will be the bases for decision making when the time comes in the state.
We could only do all these because we are confined with a certain budget for the year." NBA, however, decried the poor state of the Federal High Court in Lagos State, calling on the government to upgrade the facilities of the court for smooth dispensation of justice.
The NBA branches, led by Mr. Monday Ubani and Mr. Taiwo Taiwo, said the development would hamper dispensation of justice and worsen the prisons congestion. Ubani said: "From our investigation, we found out that the court is not functioning. And the judges are having challenge with the issue of accommodation."
National Mirror
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