Plans are on for Ogun State government to enter into agreement with Dangote Company under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement for the reconstruction of some roads should the federal government consent to releasing dilapidated federal roads within the Ogun corridors to the state.
With particular mentioning of the Papalanto/Sagamu Interchange expressways and the ever busy Abeokuta/Ibadan highway terminating at Odeda town among others, the Prince Abiodun led administration was already working towards securing federal government's consent for proper rehabilitation and maintenance of federal roads in Ogun corridors through the PPP arrangement.
Making this known on Monday was the Special Adviser to the Government on Public Communication, Hon Remmy Hazzan while featuring at the Correspondents' Chapel dialogue held in Abeokuta, the state capital.
He said engaging Dangote's company becomes exigent in view of the fact that the company had demonstrated its dexterity at reconstructing roads by using concrete materials as done in Obajana - Kaba in Kogi state.
Hon Remmy Hazzan further explained that fixing the federal roads in Ogun corridors under the PPP arrangement remains the only panacea bearing in mind that cost of fixing them is gargantuan, hence the federal government had been dilly dallying at reconstructing them over the years.
Disclosing that Abiodun's infrastructural development plans for the state covered roads, education, rail and water among others, Hazzan however, emphasized that those roads may be tolled by the private investors and eventually transfer them to the state after recouping their capital invested at reconstructing them.
"We came up with an idea that will boost our infrastructural plan and majority of the roads that are critical to us are federally owned. We are engaging the Private Investors because we don't have the resources to put these roads in places and our people don't care how you do it: whether you borrow or enter into partnership with private investors, they're careless. They just want to pass on roads that are motorable".
"Now, we're able to get private investors who are willing to put their money on these roads, but they want to toll them. However, they can't toll those roads if they still remain property of the federal government. What we're doing as a state, is talking to the federal government to release those roads to us".
"We have created the Public Private Partnership office: we have established the Public Private Partnership laws which will ensure that private investors putting their money into these road projects recoup their capital. We just want the federal government to release those roads to us".
"But while that negotiations is ongoing, we have started works on the ones which we have control over. For example, the Ijebu - Ode/Epe highway: this is one of the roads that will decongest the Lagos - Ibadan expressway because whoever that that is travelling to Lagos Island either from the Northern or Eastern parts of the country do not need to connect the Lagos - Ibadan expressway any longer. But the investors would have to toll the road to enable them recoup their capital".
Hazzan however, justified tolling the roads by saying that federal government, whose policy objected to collecting tolls, has also been collecting tolls at the nation's airports across the country.
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