The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has said that the tolling of Federal highways across the country will start soon.
The Minister reiterated this during a media briefing in Abuja on September 4 while commending the move by Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde to collaborate with his Lagos and Ogun counterparts – governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Prince Dapo Abiodun, to put solar light all through the stretch of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The government identified preferred/reserved bidders for 12 federal highways which were listed for concession under the Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI). The development followed the conclusion of the evaluation of the proposals submitted for Phase I of the Value-Added Concession (VAC) under the HDMI.
The HDMI is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiated by the government to stimulate sustainable investment and funding in the development of road infrastructure.
The first phase of the VAC seeks to concession 12 economically-viable road corridors to technically and ûnancially capable private sector firms/consortia. The 12 highways spanning 1,963 kilometres or 5.6 per cent of Nigeria’s 35,000 kilometres federal highways are: Benin-Asaba; Abuja-Lokoja; Kano-Katsina; Onitsha-Owerri-Aba; Sagamu-Benin; Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga; Kano-Maiduguri (Kano-Shuarin); Kano-Maiduguri (Potiskum-Damaturu); Lokoja-Benin; Enugu-Port Harcourt; Ilorin-Jebba; Lagos-Otta-Abeokuta and Lagos-Badagry-Seme Border.
“I was happy to hear from the governor of Oyo State that, (concerning) the famous Lagos-Ibadan, which is about 97 per cent on average completion, he is already talking with the governors of Lagos and Ogun states for a combined commitment and effort to put solar light all through the stretch of the road (Lagos-Ibadan). It is commendable and part of our renewed hope agenda to make our highways safer for our people; so that people can travel at night. Also, I am asking them to deploy CCTV, and of course, we are going to toll the road so that when we are having tolling, we are also going to be having service stations. We will also have security, that is, a rapid response squad.”
