FERMA BOSS ASSURES ON PROMPT MAINTENANCE OF ROADS

The Managing Director and Chief Executive officer of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Engr. Kabir Abdullahi has assured that all Federal Roads in the country would become pot hole- free by the end of 2011.

He gave the assurances during his courtesy visit to the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Osita Chidoka at the National Headquarters of the Corps, Abuja.

According to him, of the 194,000km road network in the country, the Agency maintains up to 60% of it, stressing however that it could only adequately handle 30% of it at the moment. This he said, has made it imperative that the Agency collaborates with the Corps in continuously identifying black spots as it has been doing to ensure necessary remedial actions in the areas.

“Your men are always on the roads enforcing traffic rules across the nation, and we are happy as we always receive your reports on identified black spots, which guided us in carrying out repairs and construction of observation posts in such areas. We should therefore sustain this collaboration between our two organisations”, he stated.

Engr. Abdullahi further enumerated various efforts being made by the Agency to ensure smooth and obstruction-free roads in the country, and called on FRSC to continue to render assistance in traffic management, especially on roads like Lokoja –Okene where construction work is being undertaken.

While responding, Chidoka assured the Managing Director and his management team that the Corps is up and doing in its responsibility of ensuring safer roads in the country, disclosing that this was what informed his management’s adoption of information communication technology for its administrative and operational activities. The Corps Marshal further stated that staff capacity building is being aggressively pursued in the Corps through training programmes and called on the Agency to sponsor its staff to actively participate in the Road Auditors’ Training program being planned by the Corps for the mutual benefit of the two organisations.