BY EMEKA MAMAH

LAGOS-Federal Government is to concession about 2,207.4 kilometres out the 36,000 kilometres of Trunk ‘A’ roads and bridges which it built and maintains in the country.

Minister of Works, Chief Mike Onolememen, said this in a presentation at a recent Nigerian Investment Summit and Exhibition in New York.

The roads and bridges listed include the Sagamu-Benin-Asaba dual carriageway (368 kilometres), Abuja- Kaduna-Kano dual carriageway (378 kms), Lagos-Badagry-Seme border dual carriageway (78 kms), Port Harcourt– Enugu dual carriageway (224 kms), construction of the new Lagos-Iseyin- Kaiama-Konkwaso- Kaoje Kwambe-Argungu- Sokoto road (1,020 kms), and the Enugu-Onitsha dual carriageway (125 kms).

The minister said bridges listed for the concessioning also include the one kilometre River Niger bridge at Nupeko; the one kilometre River Benue bridge at Buruku; Bridge across River Benue at Ibi (one kilometre) and the 1.4 kilometres Second Niger Bridge in Onitsha.

Onolememen said although the Federal Government controls only about 18 per cent (about 36,000) of the over 200,000 kilometres of the road network in the country, ”the federal roads carry the heaviest volume of traffic estimated at well over 70 per cent.’’

He said the Federal Government had concessioned the 105- kilometre Lagos-Ibadan Expressway under its Public-Private Partnership, PPP, scheme to Bi-Courtney Consortium in 2009 for N89.53 billion (about $605 million) for 25 years, adding that the latest development would lead to increased private sector participation in the development of the road sector.

He said: ‘’The large size of the nation’s road network poses a big problem since funds keep decreasing due to other competing demands.

‘’’Political aspirations and the demands for construction of new roads create challenges for maintenance of already constructed roads hence the need for PPP.

Onolememen said the Federal Government had also awarded contracts for the construction of 2,414.99 kilometres of roads for N214 billion (about $1.43 billion) under the North-South and East-West zonal intervention projects.