Ado-Iyin Road
For the Governor Kayode Fayemi-led administration in Ekiti State, opening up the communities through aggressive rehabilitation of roads is a priority. It has promised not to abandon any project, reports SALAWUDEEN SULAIMAN
Load users are in for a good time in Ekiti State. In Ado Ekiti, – the capital city, gashes and potholes are disappearing and the frequent visits of vehicles owners to mechanic workshops to fix damaged body parts and burst tyres are fading away.
Travellers on the route to other areas are beginning to have smooth rides through Ado-Ekiti. Adjoining towns of Ikere, Ilawe, Ijan/Federal Poly, Iyin and Iworoko/EKSU have suddenly become closer to the state capital owing to the corresponding reduction in their travel times. Even members of the transport unions are attesting to the wind of change blowing in the state.
They say their travel times have been halved with the construction and rehabilitation of roads in the Fountain of Knowledge State.
Also being refurbished are intra-city roads, with the popular Fajuyi Junction as the take-off point. The roads towards Adebayo/Teaching Hospital, Basiri Police Headquarters and Ojumose/Old Garage are all wearing new looks.
On-going drainage of at Ojumose-Old Garage, Ado-Ekiti.
It is difficult for passengers and first-time travellers not to notice that the city centre has temporary become a construction site.
Such places where heavy presence of construction equipment are readily noticeable include: Ereguru/Oke-Oriomi/Atikankan; Ben Folarin/Ilawe road axis; Nova road; Odo-Ado/Federal Poly and the Ado/Iworoko dual carriage way.
The dualised Fajuyi-Old Garage road, through Okeyinmi through Ojumose, linking Ijigbo/Ikere Ekiti road, is receiving a face-lift.
At an interactive forum with reporters recently,Governor Kayode Fayemi explained that his government’s intervention would ease the usual traffic logjam on the Post Office/Palace/Old Garrage road. He said the intention is to create access within and around the capital without any noticeable presssure on any particular road.
Commissioner for Works and Transport Mr Sola Adebayo said the roads in the state capital are being repaired in phases, so as not to choke up residents.
He noted: “Even despite the efforts to segment the rehabilitation, traffic still build up in some areas, especially on Adebayo road where we have made appreciable progress with the successful blasting of rocks at the School of Nursing side and the Adebayo/New garage end of the road.
“When our attention was drawn to the tarffic pains of commuters on the road, we only instructed the contractor to quicken the pace of construction around the area and he complied.
“We (including the state governor), also started to resume our daily assignment for effective monitoring. But in no time, the gridlock vanished.”
Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; flanked by Senior Special Assistant, Roads and Special Duties, Mr. Adunmo Sunday (Right); and Project Manager, Plycon Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Yemi Arije (Left), during an unscheduled inspection of on-going Reconstruction of Ado-Ikere Road.
According to him, there was a standing order from the governor specifically that the contractor handling the dulaisation of the Ado-Iworoko road should work 24 hours.
Project Manager of HAJAIG, one of the contractors handling the roads, Mr Kashif Tawwab, told The Nation that his firm has received tremendous support from the government in terms of funding
Tawwab said: “The state government has been very kind to us (the company). It is the rain that has set us back a bit. But we are moving on. You notice we are on site 24 hours.
“The major work on most of the roads are the drainages and for the ones which have to be dualised, the major work is the concrete median. “We want to do all the drainages and the road divider now. Once that is fixed, in the next couple of weeks, the rest of the jobs will be done in no time.”
But the ongoing construction has thrown up temporary challenges within the metrpolis.
According to Mr Kayode Kajola of 9 Omisanjana Street, a commercial bus operator, the Omisanjana road is too narrow, considering the volume of traffic in the area.
“The mistake commonly made is the belief that traffic in the area is usually light, being a suburb. But this is not so”, Kajola said.
It is not only the roads in and around the immediate the capital that are being revitalised. Information and Civic Orientation Commissioner, Mr. Funminiyi Afuye, informed that many inter-city roads have either been fixed, or undergoing rehabilitation.
Afuye said: “The entire stretch between Ado-Ekiti and Iboji, a border community between Ekiti and Ondo states has been completed; Igbara Odo to Ikere is 85 per cent completed; Ijan-Ekiti to Isan-Ekiti is almost completed. May I add that even Ado-Ifaki-Ekiti road, which the state government took over from the Federal Government is almost completed as well.
Afuye noted that although the initial plan was to complete all abandoned projects before taking on new ones, but the reality of the need to transform the state, advised that both the abandoned and the new projects should be taken in one fell swoop to sufficiently cushion the effects of parlous state of the roads on residents.
He said: “Today, we are already seeing the result of the sheer will and focused determination of the Fayemi administration.
Despite the paucity of funds at the state’s disposal, the entire road network across the state is being overhauled.
“And we are assuring our people that, despite the ambitious volume of work this administration has set as a target for itself, at the end of our four years, no single road project will be an abandoned project.
“You would recall that elder statesman Chief Ojo Falegan, in his comments during the State Economic and Development Summit last year, used the term‘development by destruction’ to capture the demolition of structures in the wake of the urban renewal project. He cautioned the government to be less ambitious about the projects it was undertaking.
“Chief was right because he knew the state’s financial status. But we were right as well because we know the consequence of the total collapse of road infrastructure in our dear state.
“It was truly an ambitious gamble. But it is already paying off today as commuting within the state has become less stressful and commercial activities boosted.”
This article was first published in The Nation on 04 September, 2012
Last modified: September 4, 2012