President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a policy that will limit the amount of load that is carried and conveyed by certain heavy duty vehicles on Nigerian roads.
According to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, the initiative will stop overloaded vehicles from plying selected roads, a development that is expected to reduce road damage.
This is coming as the Federal Government has introduced an axle load control policy to regulate the tonnage of load being carried by heavy duty trucks and tankers nationwide in accordance with an Act of the Economic Community of West African States.
This is contained in a document obtained by our correspondent from the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in Abuja on Friday, which was presented to members of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, Petroleum Tanker Drivers and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers.
Fashola stated that the recommendations proffered by NARTO with respect to managing Nigerian roads would receive the required attention from his team at the FMPWH.
He spoke while hosting senior officials of the unions in his office in Abuja.
The minister said he had written to Buhari, requesting that certain vehicles be restricted from carrying excessive load and the President had approved the request.
Fashola said, “I’m happy to note that in your (NARTO) document there were recommendations. So I will pass the document to our team and they will merge it with the workshop document and we will come to constitute teams that can then work out our immediate resolutions.
“I’ve written to Mr. President to approve that even from the loading stations, from the ports, from the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) depots, we’ll restrict certain vehicles from being loaded beyond a certain point. Mr. President has approved that.”
He added, “But before we start implementing all of these, we thought we should have a workshop with you so that you will know what we want to do. We are not the operators of the business, rather you are. If the roads collapse, you will have no business and we will also not have fuel; really nobody wins.”
In the document presented to the unions by the minister, the FMPWH said axle load control on the nation’s highways had become necessary to limit the excess traffic loading on the roads and extend the service life of the pavements.
It stated that the process of reintroducing axle load control on the federal highways at some selected locations nationwide was ongoing.
“The procurement process for the operation of 10 completed weigh-bridge stations is now in progress. Private sector operators will manage these stations on behalf of the Federal Government,” the ministry stated in the document.
It highlighted some challenges posed by roads users across the country to include the abuse of infrastructure and right of way, speeding, indiscriminate parking on the road, overloading and defacing of road signage.
