The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has commenced the resurfacing and patching of some inter-state roads that need urgent attention in Imo State.
This is coming after the lamentation of road users, residents and the state government on the bad condition of the roads.
One of these roads is the Owerri-Onitsha Road which is an inter-state road that begins from the control junction of Owerri Municipal and ends in Onitsha, Anambra State’s commercial capital.
The Chief of Staff to the Imo State government, Uche Nwosu, disclosed that the state government had at a point, embarked on a short term remedy of a major failed portion of Owerri-Onitsha Road which was over 60km, to alleviate the sufferings of road users when the federal government was not forthcoming.
The South-East Zonal Coordinator of FERMA, Rufus Onimisi, who was represented by the agency’s engineer in Imo State, Chukwuemeka Maduagwu, said that the agency was committed to ensuring that all failed federal roads in the south-east receive maximum attention, especially since the rains were over.
Mr Maduagwu implored residents and road users to desist from dumping refuse on drainage channels pointing out that it was the major cause of most of the failed sections of the roads.
He added that FERMA has begun the process of cleaning up the drainage and ensuring that there is free flow of traffic especially on the Owerri-Onitsha road during the yuletide.
The FERMA official also said that arrangements were in place to intervene at the very critically failed location around KM 0+200 area of the Owerri-Port Harcourt road to ease vehicular movement.
Roads users and some residents of Owerri commended the federal government for the new development as it would go a long way to reduce the traffic congestion experienced on the roads.
They expressed hope that the government, through FERMA and the Ministry of Works would extend the gesture to other failed federal roads across the south-east region to give it a total face-lift before the rains start in 2016.
