FG To Reintroduce Toll Gate

Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Works Dr. Abubakar Muhammad, on Wednesday revealed that the federal government is exploring all avenues to reintroduce national tolling policy.

Speaking at an ongoing three-day 18th edition of the annual national conference of Directors of Civil Engineering (Highways) tagged: “Funding Road Development in Nigeria”, Muhammad explained that the move was aimed at generating funds for the road sector.

Daily Independent reports that the permanent secretary expressed optimism that when passed into law, the Federal Road Authority (FRA) and the National Road Fund (NRF) would attract funds from the private sector to fill the inadequate gap in road development infrastructure.

“The ministry is also working assiduously to ensure that the National Tolling Policy is in place as soon as possible. These efforts are underscored by the fact that government alone can no longer fund huge and expensive road projects due to limited financial resources,” Muhammad said.

Muhammad, who noted that the conference was timely also, revealed that maintaining Nigerian road sector has been a challenge to the Federal Government.

“I believe that the Directors of Civil Engineering will further assist the government by coming up with best options for funding road sector in order to enhance socio-economic development and also address all the challenges facing road infrastructure funding and proffer solutions to the challenges” Muhammad said.

It would be recalled that on October 12, 2012, the House of Representatives considered re-introducing toll gates on national highways as part of effort to generate income for the maintenance of  federal roads.