By Francis Onoiribholo / Bureau Chief, Benin
Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, has disclosed that one of the objectives of the Goodluck Jonathan administration is to make rural communities accessible to the urban areas for easy evacuation of farm produce.
The Minister, who disclosed this at Uromi after inspecting ongoing Federal Government road projects in Edo State, put the cost of the ongoing road projects in Edo North and Central Senatorial Districts at about N9.8 billion.
He also said that efforts were being made at forestalling accidents on newly constructed Federal Government roads across the country.
He, however, appealed to drivers and other road users to adhere to standard road practices following accidents recorded on some of the roads in recent time.
Onolememen revealed that following the construction of Utor bridge linking Delta and Edo state, travellers from eastern parts of the country, who now access the road as a short cut to Abuja and other parts of the north, needed to adhere to standard practices for road users a result of the incessant accidents at the Edo axis of the road.
The Minister said the Ministry of Works was working with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to step up enlightenment campaigns, especially on the reconstructed Asaba – Uburubu – Emu – Ubiaja- Uromi road.
On the ongoing road projects across the country, the Minister said one of the cardinal objectives of the Jonathan administration was to open up rural communities so as to make them accessible to the urban areas. He also pointed out that one of the reasons why the development of the rural areas was slow was because less attention had been focused on urban roads thereby under developing the economy of the rural areas for years.
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