The minister of Transportation, Senator Said Alkali has said that the newly approved National Land Transport Policy by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will improve regulations of the road sector and ensure safety.
He noted that the federal government also plans to build bus terminals and CNG stations in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Alkali, gave the hint when he met with members of the Abuja Transport and Aviation Correspondent Association (ATACA) in Abuja.
He stated that the policy was the first of its kind in the history of Nigeria, stressing that the transport sector is the most burdensome mode of transportation in any part of the world.
Alkali noted: “A lot of potentials remain untapped here, and we feel we should harness all these potentials by having a framework on which the sector needs to operate.
“With the passage of this policy, the framework is going to strengthen the sector. We have moved the sector to the next level with the support and cooperation of the president and the Federal Executive council with the approval of the contract for the construction of Six bus terminals as a pilot scheme, one for each of the six political zones.
“The locations of sites are chosen on their economic viability, and this is just a pilot scheme. We are going to engage with the World Bank to continue with the development of these terminals.
“The proposed bus terminals will have CNG centers and the presence of security agencies because we have observed that most of the reasons behind these road traffic accidents is linked to drug abuse.
“Government will be insisting on the use of manifest for the passengers that took off from the station, whether the buses belong to government or to private individuals, still, government have a responsibility to ensure safety.
“So we need to have all these facilities on our roads, but certainly a journey of 1000 mile starts with a step.”
On the state of ongoing rail projects across the country, Alkali said: “We have put our corridor on the Eastern narrow gate from Port Harcourt to Aba to use. The project was just at the outskirt of Port Harcourt when we came in but by the grace of God Almighty, we are able to achieve Port Harcourt to Aba.
“It has been put into use since last year, and by the grace of God, we are working hard to see how we can as well put another corridor from Kaduna to Kano to use hopefully by the end of or before the end of next year.
“We are also working on from Kano to Katsina with a branch line in Jigawa State, they have already started laying the rail track in Jigawa State. So all these are monumental achievements that the government has achieved in the last two years in the transportation sector.”