FG to reintroduce toll collection on roads

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By Favour Goodness

The Federal Government is to reintroduce toll collection on some federal, dual-carriage roads across the country.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who disclosed this after the week’s virtual Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, however, said the proposal will only become practicable when the selected roads must have been restored to good conditions.

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Fashola also explained the planned reintroduction of tolling to the roads was still a work in progress, adding modalities were being worked out to determine how soon the plan would take off.

The administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo removed tolling from roads in 2003, citing the associated corrupt practices around the system then.

According to the Minister, the memorandum for the reintroduction of tolling, which the Council approved, has plans to toll 5,050 kilometers of federal dual-carriage roads.

He added out of the over than 200,000 kilometers of roads across the country, only 35,000 kilometers belong to the federal government, representing only 14% of roads.

He added that vehicles plying the tolled highways would pay between N200 and N500 per trip depending on their capacity.

“We need to have a kick off policy. So we’ve classified vehicles into five categories, the cars, the SUVs and the jeeps as a second category. Private bus and commercial bus as third and fourth categories. And then luxury buses and trucks as a fifth category.

“So, the start off tolls that we have for financial modelling and investment decision making, cars will pay N200, SUVs and Jeeps will pay N300, private busses will pay N300, commercial buses will pay N150, luxury buses and trucks will pay N500.”

The Minister also said the toll collected, apart from being used to maintain the roads, would also be used to construct new ones while the toll system would be electronically driven for transparency.

He listed those vehicles to be exempted from paying tolls to include diplomatic, military, para-military vehicles as well as motorcycles, bicycles and tricycles.

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