The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) says its urban mass transit buses would resume operations to cushion the effect of hike in transport fare, occasioned by fuel subsidy removal.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that transport fare has skyrocketed by more than 100 per cent in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, since the new fuel price regime took off.
During his inaugural speech on May 29, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had announced the removal of fuel subsidy, leading to the increased price of petrol from N195 to N540 per litre.
Barely two months after, the price was further reviewed upward to N617 per litre, a development some FCT residents said was taking a heavy toll on them.
Some civil servants particularly groaned that the increase in transport fare was forcing them to spend a larger chunk of their salary on transport.
Some residents described the efforts as a “welcome development”, saying it will significantly ameliorate the hash transportation situation in the FCT.
A resident of Nyanya, Paul Nkom, told NAN that he spends more than N1,000 daily on transportation from the initial N300 to Federal Secretariat and back home.
“This amounted to over N5,000 a week and N20,000 a month from my meagre salary, but I am sure that fare will drastically reduce if we have the urban mass transit buses on the road,” he said.
Another resident, Lawal Haruna, said that she spends N1,100 on transportation from Gwarinpa to his office located at Central Area, Abuja and back home, amounting to N2,200 every day.
Mr Haruna pointed out that he spends N11,000 weekly and N44,000 monthly.
“This is about 50 per cent of my salary. We are appealing to the FCTA to roll out palliatives to cushion the effect of the hike in transport fare on workers salary,” he said.
He urged the FCTA to, as a matter of urgency, refurbish the urban mass transit buses and get them on the road to provide alternative and cheaper transportation within the FCT.
Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, FCTA, Olusade Adesola, said on Monday that plans are already in place to bring back the mass transit buses on the road.
Mr Adesola disclosed that the Managing Director of Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company, AUMTCO, was in Lagos over the weekend on the matter.
“He was in Lagos over the weekend where he held meetings with the companies that supply our mass transit buses to fix the buses for us.
“We are also working to ensure that all the buses are fixed and back on the road to support the movement of persons in and out of the city,” he said.
“We have also commenced the rehabilitation of the vandalised rail tracks of the Abuja Rail Transport System to complement the urban mass transit buses to bring succour to our people.
“The Federal Government has also introduced a number of measures to ameliorate the effect of the withdrawal of subsidy of petroleum products,” the permanent secretary said.
NAN
