Governor Dapo Abiodun has said that plans are underway to convert vehicles running on petrol to gas in Ogun state.
His Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin quoted the governor as disclosing this at an interactive meeting with transport union members from Ogun Central, held at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, at the weekend.
He explained that the conversion project christened ‘Ogun Going Green Project’ is necessitated by the hazard poses to the environment by carbon emissions.
He added: “It is no news that Ogun State enjoys the crisscross of gas pipelines coming from the delta and goes to neighboring countries that is why we have the proliferation of industries in the state, and we have decided to take advantage of the network of gas pipelines. We have the Ogun Going Green Project and that project allows for the reduction of carbon emissions like it is done all over the world.
“We want to start by ensuring that our vehicles utilize other sources of fuel that will reduce the amount of emissions which is the largest contributor to global warming. So, we are starting with our transportation sector. We are going to provide them with vehicles and these vehicles and with the one they have now will be converted through a pilot project. We will be using a combination of Gas and fuel, but the fuel will only be used to start the vehicles and after that, the gas takes over”.
He said that the first set of kits for the project would arrive in the state in the next three weeks, adding that buses, trucks and taxis, would be the first to benefit from the project, while motorcycles would be converted to electric ones.
He added that apart from reducing consumption and reliance on fuel, the project would reduce the environmental pollution as well as cost of transportation as the cost of gas is almost a quarter of that of fossil fuel.
According to him, the state would facilitate new vehicles for the transporters on a part-payment basis, saying the Ministry of Transportation had been directed to work out modalities with the unions on how to go about the plans.
Abiodun, who described the transportation sector as the live wire of any economy, maintained that his administration regarded the union members as important stakeholders in achieving its “Building our Future Together agenda”.
He stressed that transporters are too important to ignore in the scheme of things.
“From time to time, we must sit down with people like this and share with them what the administration has done for the avoidance of doubt and to further solicit from them what we want them to do. We want them to ply the roads responsively. We want them to drive safely and be our ambassadors. We want to know what their needs are and what we can do to make road transportation safer and more efficient”
