Commissioner urges states to engage infrastructure experts for efficient transportation
Infrastructure
By Sumaila Ogbaje/Taiye Elebiyo-Edeni
Abuja, March 22, 2018 (NAN) The Chairman, Commissioners for Transport Forum, Mr Orman Esin, has called on State Governments to engage infrastructure experts in transport development to ensure efficient transport system in their states.
Esin, who is also the Akwa Ibom State’s Commissioner for Transport and Petroleum Resources, made the call at the maiden meeting of the forum on Thursday in Abuja.
He said infrastructure was key to developing efficient transport system in the country, adding that many states could not develop efficient transport system because of poor infrastructure.
Esim disclosed that the forum was going to create an enlarged engagement between the ministries of transport and works to ensure that transport system was in line with structures on ground.
According to him, some of the states did not consider facilities like bus stop when putting some of the infrastructure in place.
“Now we want a situation where before your planning process begins in terms of transportation infrastructure, experts in infrastructure should come in and have the proper design of what we need that will help enhance operations.
“We cannot talk about transport without talking about infrastructure.
“And when you talk about infrastructure you are also talking about works and most of the commissioners here are commissioners for both works and transport in their respective states,” he said.
The commissioner disclosed that the idea behind the forum was to help create some level of synergy among commissioners of transport across the country in the development of sector.
He added that commissioners would brainstorm on policy frameworks that could help them develop certain policies in the transport sector in collaboration with the Minister of Transportation.
According to him, the general idea of this forum is to ensure that they identify the unique transport activities going on in each of the states and see how they can synergise for the purpose of ensuring a robust transport operation in Nigeria.
“We are just at the starting level; we have major areas of engagement in the transport sector of the country, especially the ministry of works.
“We are going to create an enlarged engagement between the ministry of transportation and that of works to ensure that whatever we do will also fall in line with the structure that is on ground.
“What we are doing now is to identify areas of key interest and see how we can together harness various capacities,” he said.
Esim further said security was key to transportation, adding that the analyses of the security challenges in Nigeria and other parts of the world, showed that there was no crime committed that did not engage transportation.
He said the forum would brainstorm on how to control the movement process that would enable the government to help the security agencies in the country.
“If we are able to control our movement process, it means that we can address the issues of crime to the rarest minimum.
“In Akwa Ibom state as a case study, even in a local government where you have the communities, the major means of transportation is motorcycle.
“We have set up a system that allows for registration of every operator within that structure so that we will be able to know who is who and who is the owner to check some security issues,” he said. (NAN)
OYS/TY/GOM/AFA
Edited by Gregory Mmaduakolam/Felix Ajide
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