By Favour Nnabugwu

Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA has provided parking lots for trailers and tanker drivers in seven states across the nation. The Agency has also paved the shoulders of Abuja-Kaduna Road for brief parking of trailers and tanker without obstructing traffic flow on that route.

Thiese facts were disclosed to Vanguard Homes & Property by the Managing director of the Agency, Mr Gabriel Amuchi during an inspection on the progress of work done on the Abuja Kaduna road. The inspection focused mainly on Tafa town axis of that highway where the long vehicles used to park before they were taken off from the highway.

Mr  Amuchi revealed that the agency cleared the highway of  refuse and provided a 15 hectares of land for trailers and tankers in Abuja/Kaduna road alongside six other states in the federation. He said, “The agency has similar parking lots in other parts of the country where parking of trailers was an issue. The places are Mararab/Jos, we have fenced that.

“We also have another one near Lopanta where we have a market between Enugu and Portharcourt and that we have also fenced; There is one in Akinyele in Oyo state which we have also fenced; And just recently, we acquired a place in Umunede in Delta which we are making arrangement to clear. We also have at Obolafor where we have this kind of challenge”.

Though Amuchi did not disclose the amount of money so far invested in the parking lots  because their challenges differ depending on scope of work needed to be done on each of the sites, he  gave the  assurance that having acquired all those locations for fencing, “the new strategy of the agency is to ensure that we put them to use which is what has brought us to Tafa. We do not intend to keep them waiting till all the facilities are in place”.

What FERMA is doing now is to pave the shoulders of the highway so as to accommodate trucks that will stop for a brief period before proceeding or before entering the parking lot.

“The project is intended to take trailers and tankers off the highway. When the trailers move in to the parking lot, we will develop the park to have facilities that will provide light accommodation for transit drivers, shopping malls, places to service to their trucks, water and  lighting”.

“And we have decided to do this jointly with the National Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO and the Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD to ensure that they will at the end of the day accept to park in the parking lot provided for them”, he said.