Kaduna: The Kaduna State Council of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has appealed to the Federal Government to expedite the construction and rehabilitation of roads in the state, to curb the recurring loss of lives and property.
Alhaji Hassan Ibrahim, the State Secretary of the union, made the call on Wednesday in Kaduna.
Ibrahim said the union has been continuously recording road crashes, especially along the Abuja-Kaduna highway and the Western bypass in Kaduna, due to the slow pace of construction and rehabilitation of the decapitated roads.
He said, “We want to appeal to the Federal Government to expedite action to compel the construction companies to complete the project as soon as possible so that motorists as well as commuters should not be subjected to this kind of hardship.
“Passing Kaduna, somebody who started a journey from Abuja, spent two hours from Abuja to Kaduna, but he has to spend another two hours before he moves out from Kaduna, which is unfair.
“The work is going slowly as I wouldn’t know whether it is because of the rainy season that makes the contractors foot-drag on the project.
“But, these are major projects that need to be completed on time because of the volume of vehicles that are in transit from other states.”
Ibrahim regretted that some members of the union, particularly those with smaller vehicles, had been forced to leave Kaduna and relocate to operate along the Zuba-Abuja road due to the poor road conditions.
“This is an ugly scenario for us as we are losing revenue in terms of those vehicles that have moved out.
“I can confirm to you that the roads, especially the Kaduna western bypass, are now a death trap as we record accidents that result in loss of lives and property continuously.”
The official, then, urged the Federal Government to initiate policies that would compel the assigned contractors of the roads under construction to complete the projects, considering the high volume of vehicles that ply the streets.
“If you recall, four weeks ago, after the Sallah festivity, there was a major gridlock along Jere-Kaduna highway for over four hours, which is an incident we don’t pray for to persist,” he said.
Ibrahim also commended Gov. Uba Sani ot Kaduna State’s initiative of centralising all motor parks within Kaduna.
He said, “Before now, there had been operations of illegal motor parks in Kaduna, but when the Governor came on board, he noticed that the development had security implications and immediately directed that all unlawful motor parks and loading points should relocate to the Mando mega motor park.
“Now, all the transport unions are cohabitating at the Mando mega motor park as loading and offloading are done in an orderly manner while revenue generation to the government and the union is improving.
“The issue of security has also improved because before, there were issues of “one chance” as operators without knowledge of transportation and with bad habits took advantage of innocent passengers and robbed them on the roads, and some had lost their lives.
“On the highways also, I would like to commend the governor for his bold initiative by bringing sanity because now, you can travel from any exit, including Kaduna-Brinin Gwari, Kaduna-Jos, Kaduna-Abuja and Kafanchan at any time without any fear.”
Ibrahim assured the state government and the security agencies of the union’s continued complementary partnership.
He, however, urged the members of the public and intending travellers always to patronise designated motor parks, desist from boarding vehicles along the roads, and ensure they fill out the passengers’ manifest during transit.