The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has disclosed that plans have been concluded to concession 10 major highways across the country to private investors.
The Minister made the disclosure yesterday evening when he appeared before the National Assembly’s Joint Committee on Works.
He stated that the concessioning of the roads that is titled “Highway Development and Management Initiative,” would enable private sector’s investors to carry out the development and management of the road networks, which the government would no longer perform due to paucity of funds that hindered roads development in the past.
The minister disclosed that the first phase of the project would attract a capital investment of N163.323 billion at a cost of about N16 billion per each of the 10 roads and create not less than 23, 322 jobs.
The affected roads include Benin-Asaba, Abuja-Lokoja, Kadun-Kano, Onitsha- Owerri-Aba, Shagamu-Benin, Abuja -Keffi – Akwanga, Kano-Maiduguri, Lokoja- Benin, Enugu-Port Harcourt and Ilorin – Jebba roads.
The investors, according to Fashola, would provide streetlights, toll plazas, rest areas, conveniences and weighbridge stations.
He further explained that the total length of federal road network stands at 35,000 kilometres, adding that the total length of the proposed first phase routes is 2,275kilometres.
Fashola said that another 10 routes are being identified for the second phase of the value added concession.