FG on road projects in all states, FCT- Fashola

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said on Thursday that the federal government is currently working on at least one federal road in each of the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Fashola disclosed this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Works to defend the 2017 budget of the ministry.

The minister stated that when the Buhari administration came on board in 2015, the government met over 200 road projects that were neither funded nor underfunded.

According to Fashola, majority of contractors handling the various road project had not been paid for two to three years, which led to most of them laying off their workers to reduce their overhead, which impacted negatively on the economy.

He said out of the N260 billion appropriated for capital funding in 2016, it has so far received N139 billion, representing 54 percent of the total appropriation.

Fashola added that with the implementation of the 2016 budget so far, the federal government has been able to meet the objectives it set out to archive, which include reducing travel time of commuters and easing the pain and cost of doing business in the country.

The minister stated that “in all the places that contractors are working, the reports they are getting is that the experience of commuting is getting better, even as the work is yet to be completed.

“More result will show especially now that we are in the dry season, because they started work at the peak of the raining season.”

Fashola pointed out that workers who had earlier been laid off by construction companies are now been recalled, as the contractors are remobilizing to site, adding that this is one of the strategy the government intends to employ in rebooting the economy and moving it from the recession.