'We're re-introducing toll gates across the country,' Babatunde fashola

The Federal Government has said that toll gates will be re-introduced on major highways across the country.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), disclosed this on Thursday, November 23, while appearing before the Senate Committee on Federal Roads Maintenance Agency.

He said 38 points have been identified in the first phase of the re-introduction.

"Clearly, tolling is coming," the minister told the lawmakers.

According to him, the new toll gates will be situated at the old spots, adding that tolls will be collected after the roads have been made motorable.

He said, "We are not going to ask road users to pay toll on a road that is not good. While the construction (of gates) is going on, we are working on the design. We want to standardise the design so that people when we ask people to come and bid for the construction, we can control what they are going to construct. They are going to construct the materials we have prescribed. We can also control the price so that nobody is bidding with disparage prices; there will be the floor and the ceiling. Your price will vary according to how many plazas you build and not because you claim to have used 'foreign' materials.

"The last part we are working on is the software that drives the management, audit, and payment of toll fares. We want to use the development that has taken place between when the old toll plazas were dismantled and now. There were no GSM and payment platforms as of that time as we have cellphones and cards now. We want to make it very easy for people to go to kiosks and buy toll cards and pay tolls."

The stand of the lawmakers on the return of toll gates is unclear at the time of filing this report.