Director General, National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Mr Aminu Jalal, has re-emphasised the need for a functional National Transportation Policy.
Jalal said at a forum in Abuja, that the nation needed a sound policy to address the numerous challenges bedeviling its road transportation systems.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, recently decried the absence of a transportation policy in the country.
Addressing participants at a road transport management workshop in Abuja, Amaechi had described the situation as disheartening.
He reeled out a number of challenges in the road transport sector, including poor infrastructure, lack of regulatory framework and lack of policy.
“A number of cities do not have urban road design policies and those which claim to have, have policies that are too obsolete and incoherent with current realities,’’ he said.
Similarly, the NADDC DG said that although the country had a National Transport Policy document, it had remained in draft form over the years.
While urging a review and adoption of the document by government, Jalal offered some suggestions on the proposed policy.
He said, “State governments’ participation in the transport sector should be restricted to regulation, monitoring and enforcement. The private sector is best equipped to be operators.
“Detailed feasibility studies, including needs assessment, should be undertaken to determine commercially viable and unviable routes.’’
Jalal underscored the symbiotic relationship between the automotive and transport sectors, stressing the need for patronage of the local vehicle assembly plants by mass transit companies in the country.
According to him, patronage of the assembly plants will ensure the provision of a reliable mass transit system “as the plants will be at hand to provide after sales, warranty and recall services’’.
“It will also enable operators to obtain concessionary loans to purchase buses,’’ he added.
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