Why we won't construct new roads

dimeji akinloye

October 6, 2016 7:57 AM

Fashola said that before any new road project can kick-off, the unfunded 206 road contracts awarded by past administrations will be dealt with.

Babatunde Fashola at ministerial screening on Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The Minister of Works, Power and Housing,

He said past administrations awarded contracts for 206 roads at about N2 trillion but were mostly not funded.

Fashola stated this while speaking to newsmen State House Correspondents on Wednesday, October 5, at the end of the Federal Executive Council.

"What we have done was first to say that we would not award any new road contract," he said.

"We would deal with the over 206 roads that have been awarded but not funded for over three years."

The Minister also spoke on the sorry state of some roads within the Federal Capital and why his ministry seems more interested in the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

"Now the budget that we have for the three ministries that I superintend is in the region of N400 plus billion and over N200 billion is dedicated to roads across the country.

"So that is the deficit that we have to deal with and in making those choices we then have to deal not with roads that necessarily border us but roads that carry the heaviest traffic," Fashola said.

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He added that the government is focusing on the roads that have economic significance for the country such as routes for the evacuation of fuel and food produce going to the different parts of the country.

dimeji akinloye