Lagos — Senate Committee on Works, Housing and Urban Development yesterday said about 30 federal roads were in critical conditions across the country.

Committee Chairman, Senator Julius Alli-Ucha , made this revelation in Lagos when the committee members paid a courtesy visit on Lagos state governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) yesterday in his office .

The team comprising Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Senator Bukar Abba-Ibrahim, Senator James Manager, Senator Festus Ola, Senator Ganiyu Olarewaju Solomon and other top civil servants in the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Development were received by Fashola and his cabinet members.

Speaking at the session, Alli-Ucha added that the federal roads were in critical conditions because some of the contractors executing the projects "are not effective enough," thus causing major delay in the completion of the projects.

According to the senator, about 30 federal roads had been identified to be in critical condition across all geo-political zones, seven of them were found in South West. The roads, he said, deserve immediate attention of the Federal Government.

He stated that the committee had inspected all the preferential zonal intervention projects in the South East and discovered that the contractors "are not effective basically because of the limitation of their equipment among others reasons."

"We just returned from the South East. We made our discoveries. We met contractors on sites. Some contractors were effective while some were not effective. These are critical roads that deserve attention. Earlier, the legislature and executive have met and identified such roads," Alli-Ucha explained.

In the West, he stated, Sagamu-Ajebamidele Road, Kabba-Efon Alaye Road as well as Erinmo-Ogbomoso Road were identified as the preferential zonal interventions project. That is what we called in the 2009 budget. Federal Government had given the executive directive to the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development that contracts of such zonal intervention projects must be awarded in 2009. Over 95 percent of such have been awarded.

He added that some contractors "have been overstressed because of the limitation of the equipment they have. "That is militating against their performance. We have take note of all these development. We will brief the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria properly after the end of our inspection," he said .

Also speaking at the session, Fashola urged the federal government to always consult the state governors on the road projects, which deserve attention and priority in their respective states before such projects are finally awarded.

He drew attention of the Senate Committee on Works to the recent laying of cables by some communication companies in such as Osborne Road in Ikoyi. He noted that there was nothing "wrong about the laying of cables, but while they are doing, they should not destroy other infrastructure already in place.

"We understand that the communication companies got the nod of the federal ministry of works to lay the cable. But I think cables should be laid underground rather than casting it on the surface. Laying on the surface does not portend best practice," Fashola added.

He tasked the Senate Committee on this development, stressing that the Federal Government "is not working for itself, but ultimately working for the development of the Nigerian federation as indicated in the constitution.