The government of Abia State says it is about to kick off the implementation of a peculiar Transport Policy in the state that will enable the transport sector to contribute immensely to the economic growth of the state. Abia Commissioner for Transport, Godswill Nwanoruo said that one of the benefits of the Abia Transport Policy will be the creation of room for investors to come in and invest in the transport sector in line with the state’s 30 years development plan which successive governments will inherit. Nwanoruo said that Abia being a commercial-driven state is aware that no economy in the world can survive without a proper transportation system which he described as the engine of the economy.
“That’s why the Governor gave me the mandate to create a transport policy for the state and with the 30 years development plan the state has adopted, this policy will continue to run and be implemented no matter the administration that’s in charge,” he said. The Commissioner said that in line with the new vision of transportation in the state, the government has embarked on a serious mission of restoration of sanity in the state through the placement of traffic lights in important traffic centres and the creation of trailer parks within the outskirts of the urban centres.
According to him, “Abia is an important state and must remain so. We’re already prepared to redesignate all Bus Stops in a modern way so that we can restore complete sanity here. We’re planning to have trailer parks in some designated places. “We’re getting one trailer park at Ihie town along the Aba-Port Harcourt Highway, we’re getting one at Osisioma Ngwa, one will be at Ubakala area and another one after Ukpakiri in Ogbor-Hill along the Aba-Ikot Ekpene Highway. This is to help decongest the commercial city of Aba and Umuahia the state capital.” Nwanoruo said that the Abia State government is not unaware of the behaviour of some transporters and has decided to checkmate such issues of underage riders (tricycle) through the new data system that will be concluded in the next 30 days. He added, “The issue of transporters and their behaviour, we’re on it. We’re about to begin the capturing of all commercial vehicle operators and owners. We’re giving all of them 30 days to be captured because we now want to have data of all transport operators here to enable us to identify each of them in person and by address.
“We need to capture them and issue them, especially the tricycle operators with ‘Riders Permit’ that will make it legal for them to operate here. This will help us checkmate the increasing cases of underage riders springing up. “You must be up to eighteen years to get our permit to ride in Abia. We’ll use the international passport, NIN, voter’s card and birth certificate to issue that certificate.” The Commissioner said that his Ministry will start awareness creation for the transport users, especially the commercial transporters in the state to educate them and to help them understand the changes going on in the state’s urban centres. “We will have to hold a seminar for our local transporters here in a few weeks to educate them properly. We’re also planning to have a transport investment summit around October and November where international transport stakeholders will be invited as well,” he said.
