The Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Boboye Oyeyemi, has described the World Bank-assisted Safe Corridor project in Nigeria as an impetus to road safety management and traffic administration, which has impacted positively on road culture in Nigeria.

Oyeyemi stated this on Friday in Abuja when he paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen. He said that the World Bank intervention initiative on road rehabilitation, currently at 90 per cent, had made a big difference.

A statement by the Corps Public Education Officer, Stella Uchegbu, quoted the Corps Marshal as saying that the intervention  has also provided the required boost to road reconstruction, road markings, appropriate road signs and enforcement, in addition to improved public enlightenment campaigns along designated corridors of the nation’s highways.

According to him, the improved partnership between the FRSC and Ministry of Works has also provided extensive mileage to efforts by the Federal Government to bequeath a better motoring environment to Nigerians as part of the Transformation Agenda.

He also disclosed that plans have been concluded for the formal commissioning and deployment of three heavy duty trucks, 11 multi-carrier ambulances and motor bikes during the 2014 ‘Ember’ month programme, in line with the FRSC’s sustained efforts to achieve its strategic goal on road crash reduction by the end of the year.

Responding, the Minister of Works commended the partnership that has existed between the two agencies as manifested by the improved road network across the country and enhanced operational activities by the FRSC.

He also said that plans were in the works to undertake a re-engineering process along the Abuja-Keffi road through the creation of alternative routes, fly-over bridges and other appropriate road structures. He also pledged to support the FRSC in its drive to engender strict compliance with directive to construction firms to install appropriate warning signs at construction sites to reduce the spate of avoidable road crashes in Nigeria.

According to Onolememen, the huge success recorded by the World Bank-assisted programme has underscored the need for a replication of the same initiative on other critical corridors of the nation, adding that the ministry would sustain its support for the FRSC’s 2014 ‘Ember season’ campaign.