Tony Osauzo, Benin
Minister for Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, yesterday, warned contractors handling the Benin-Auchi-Abuja highway to ensure the road is motorable all year round by fixing all bad spots before and during the rainy season.
He spoke during an inspection tour of the four sections of the road the road which was awarded in 2012 to four different contractors.
Several bad spots that surfaced on the road made it a nightmare last year as commuters had to spend longer hours on the road.
“This road gives the Edo people some difficult experiences during the rainy season. While you are doing your construction this road must be good throughout the rainy season. Even if it is one carriage way, it must be motorable during the rainy season. We must end the discomfort of rainy season. What happened last year on this road must not happened this year.
“lf we are building a road, all the good work we do means nothing if people are stuck during the rainy season. Make sure the bad spots are good. We want to take that point of agony away.”
He said investment on road infrastructure is moving money to the rural areas because the roads passed through many villages, adding that President Buhari’s commitment is distributing wealth to the rural communities.
“Rural economy is benefitting massively from this undertaking. The limestone and labour are gotten from quarries in the communities. Employment generated from operating quarries are from the rural areas. As we go on, the president’s commitment to infrastructure is actually moving money to the rural areas of Nigeria because that is where all the roads are going on. The roads passed through rural communities. It is better to understand that the president’s commitment is helping to distribute wealth,” Fashola said.