MFCT plans own road maintenance agency
From Chris Garba, Abuja
AS road maintenance is better and cheaper through direct labour, the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (MFCT) is planning to establish its own road maintenance agency, Malam Nasir Ahmed el-Rufia, minister of the FCT, has disclosed.
El-Rufai disclosed this on Monday in Abuja while receiving in audience members of the House of Representatives Sub-committee on Federal Roads, who paid him a courtesy call in his office.
He said: "The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has some of the best roads in the country but the inability of the Federal Government to maintain them has led to the deteriorating state of these roads with cracks and potholes on them".
He appealed to the Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe, personally to pay attention to federal roads in the FCT, adding that urgent measures should be taken to repair the Kaduna-Abuja Highway and other major roads leading into the city, especially the outer northern express highway.
Also speaking during the occasion, the Co-ordinating Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Alhaji Mohammed Sani Alhassan, said most of the roads in the FCT were over 20 years old and had begun to show signs of excessive cracks and crevices.
He added that if things were not done to arrest the situation, the roads would be worse in the near future.
Earlier, the Chairman of the House Sub-Committee, Abdul-Aziz Idris King, had said the committee was on tour of the North Central zone to monitor the performance of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in the states, which made up the zone.
He had also lamented the non-presence of FERMA in the FCT and directed the co-ordinating executive secretary to liaise with FCT controller of works to map out roads, which needed urgent attention.
King said his committee was committed to ensuring that any amount earmarked for road maintenance in the North be effectively utilised, promising that his committee would ensure that road in the North Central states would always be in good condition.
