Wole Mosadomi
22 July 2008
FOLLOWING the poor network roads in Niger State, the state government has taken steps to establish its own Road maintenance Agency (ROMA) to maintain both federal and state roads across the state.
The State Commissioner of Works and Infrastructural Development, Engineer Sani Ndanusa who disclosed this during a press conference also said that the state has also concluded plans to establish an Electricity Board to take over the activities of the existing Rural Electricity Board (REB).
The Commissioner remarked that the State Government has discovered that embarking on new road projects is not a major problem but that their maintenance including the old ones need to be tackled more seriously, hence the proposed establishment of the agency.
Engineer Ndanusa described the state as the largest state in terms of land mass in the country covering about 2,000 kilometers federal roads, saying "it is however rather unfortunate that these roads have not received the attention of the Federal Government in the past ten years and this is a major concern to the present state government"
He said since the roads are within the state even though they are used by commuters across the country, the state government feel much more concerned because of the frequent accidents that claim the lifes of Nigerians who ply these roads.
The commissioner said already, a bill for the establishment of these agencies are already been drafted by the State Ministry of Justice which will soon be sent to the state House of Assembly for deliberation.
Engineer Ndanusa allayed the fears of the public that the new agency will not be a failure for the fact that the state already has a budget for roads maintenance and that there is already in existence a Maintenance Department in the State Ministry of Transport with capable engineers to embark on the maintenance of the road.
According to him, "the state already has a committee that is looking at a Central Equipment Packing Agency for the state where we will have equipment required in the Environmental Protection Board, the roads, the ADP, the lands and all the equipment that are required and this committee has just submitted its report on this matter,"
On the new Electricity Board, Engineer Ndanusa said the Rural Electricity Board will be restructured and expanded to cover both rural and semi urban areas to fastrack the energy sector which the federal government is packaging for the state saying" this is power state and we must be on the driving seat of any power project that is coming to the state"
He said part of the plans already concluded by the state government is also to have its own Energy Company to be named Niger State Energy Company Limited.
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