The planned closure of state-owned roads to heavy-duty vehicles by the Niger State Government has commenced as trailers, tankers and other articulated vehicles are now prevented from passing through the state with effect from last Tuesday.
The State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, who personally supervised the closure of the road at the Bida end of the road in a brief ceremony Tuesday, said the decision to close the roads to such categories of vehicles was to allow the construction company handling the rehabilitation work to speed up the execution of the work.
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The governor, who was in the company of members of the state Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Committee headed by the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mallam Ibrahim Balarabe, personally pulled down the iron barricades to signal the official closure of the road at Bida.
Other state roads closed alongside the Minna-Bida road include Lapai-Paiko, Chanchaga Bridge-Maikunkele, Muye-Lapai, and Zungeru-Wushishi roads.
The governor pointed out that the decision to close the roads was taken after a series of meetings with the relevant stakeholders following complaints by the construction company handling the rehabilitation work over the activities of heavy trucks on the road.
The rehabilitation work on the 82 kilometres Minna-Bida road was awarded to Dantata and Sowoe in February this year at the cost of N23.4billion with a completion period of 18 months.
Seven months later, only about five percent of the work has been achieved, and the construction company attributed the slow pace of work to the heavy volume vehicles traffic, especially trailers, trucks, and other articulated vehicles.
The government assured that the restriction of articulated vehicles on the state-owned roads would be effective.
The governor however warned that any articulated vehicle caught violating the restriction order will pay the penalty.
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