The minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has stated that private sector’s engagement in the development and management of roads is a way of overcoming funding challenge which has hindered road development in the past.
Fashola stated this in his presentation on Public Private Partnership (PPP), on the Highway Development and Management Initiative before the joint National Assembly Committee on Works, earlier in the week.
The minister, in a statement, explained that Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI) was created by his Ministry to manage and develop the federal road networks, with the objective to attract sustainable investment and funding in the development of road infrastructure, and to maximise the use of assets along the right of way.
“The rationale behind the private sector engagement, under the HDMI, would provide an avenue that would mitigate paucity of funds, which had hindered roads development in the past,” he said.
Ten roads are to be concessioned under the first phase of the HDM initiative, namely: Benin-Asaba, Abuja-Lokoja, Kaduna-Kano, Onitsha-Owerri-Aba, Shagamu-Benin, Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga, Kano-Maiduguri, Lokoja-Benin, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Ilorin-Jebba.
The total length of the federal road network is 35,000km, but the proposed project in the first phase will cover a total length of 2.275km.
The project will attract a capital investment of N163.323bn at a cost of about N16bn per each of the 10 roads, in addition to about 23,322 jobs that would be created.
Explaining further, the minister said investors are expected to provide streetlights, toll plazas, rest areas, and weighbridge stations.
The minister further explained that the HDMI was broken into two categories, namely: Value Added Concession (VAC) and unbundled Assets Approval (VAA).
He added that the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMWH), Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), and Special Purpose Vehicle Concessionaire were the defined stakeholders to provide the regulatory framework in the implementation.
Source: leadership.ng
