Abuja -The House of Representatives on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to expand the road leading to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos to eight lanes.
The call followed a motion by Rep Enitan Badru (Lagos-APC), which was unanimously adopted by the House.
In the interim, the lawmakers urged the government to carry out rehabilitation of the road, under the Presidential Special Intervention Fund for Road Projects (PSIRP) ‘’as a palliative’’.
Presenting the motion, Badru expressed worry that the dilapidated 4.2 kilometre road had become a traffic risk to users.
He stressed the need for relevant agencies to rid the road of all environmental nuisance, illegal parking, dumping of refuse and other encumbrances impeding easy traffic.
He expressed worry that the bad state of the road had made it a den of hoodlums, who rob travellers on it.
Badru added that the condition of the road was worsened by indiscriminate parking of tankers and commercial buses.
“This often causes gridlock and thus make travellers entering Lagos through the airport to suffer stress and delay due to the slow traffic,’’ he said.
He also pointed out that the road which was originally designed to process about 500, 000 passengers annually, was currently processing more than three million passengers.
“It is expected that in the next few years, this figure will rise to about five million passengers as Nigeria’s economy continues to rise,’’ Badru stated.
He further pointed out that the good condition of the road was important to protect the image of the country before visitors.
“Many nations of the developed world, and even some African countries, have ensured that the roads connecting their international airports are well maintained.
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“This is because airport roads are one of the earliest impressions a foreign visitor gets about a country,’’ he explained.
Deputy Speaker of the House, Yussuff Lasun, who presided at the plenary, referred the matter to the Committee on Works and the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) ‘’for further legislative action’’. (NAN)
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