Funding, major challenge in road construction — Fashola

The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has said that the major challenge with road construction in Nigeria was basically funding.

The minister made this statement while giving a run-down of Federal Government road projects at the All Progressive Congress (APC) youth leadership conversation series on Thursday in Kano.

According to the minister, road construction in Nigeria is a capital intensive project which time and energy must be put into.

Other challenges the minister also identified are; right of way, compensation, weather, geological factor, insecurity and occupational hazard, all of which cause delay during road construction.

Fashola said that the Buhari administration came in with infrastructure development as a policy thrust and had made huge investment in that direction in the past six years.

He listed some of the roads and highways completed and put to use recently to include: Kebbi-Sokoto, Kontagora-Jega Koko road, Kano-Jigawa-Azare and Potiskum roads.

Others are Vandekya in Venue to Obudu in Calabar, Cross Rivers State.

Also, in bridges construction, the minister mentioned the Nfon bridge in Cross rivers state which is a major international link to Cameroon.

Others are: The Calabar port bridge which was now a gateway to the northern part of the country through Katsina-Ala ìn Benue state.

The minister further said that the Bonny-bodo highway construction which has four major bridges and eight minor ones, were already in advance stage of completion.

It was reported that part of the visit of the minister to Kano state, was to inspect the Federal Government housing and road projects in Kano and its environs.