FG To Reintroduce Tolls On Federal Highways

The Federal Government on Monday said it would reintroduce tolling on
the nation’s highways to raise the much needed funds to maintain the
roads.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola,
stated this while addressing members of the Manufacturers Association
of Nigeria, who visited him in his office in Abuja.

The minister’s position may be an endorsement of the Senate’s proposal
in July for the return of tolls on federal roads and the setting aside
of 0.5 per cent of transport fares paid by passengers on inter-state
trips to generate funds for the rehabilitation and maintenance of
roads in the country.

Fashola said that the tolling system would only be introduced to road
projects that had been completed by the government.

Fashola gave some of the prioritised road projects as the dualisation
of Ibadan-Ilorin road, Suleja-Minna road, Kano-Maiduguri road and
Lokoja-Benin road, as well as the rehabilitation of the Enugu-
Port-Harcourt Expressway and the construction of the Kaduna Eastern
Bypass.

Edited from Punch