NASS bill empowers FCTA to reintroduce ‘park and pay’

The Senate on Thursday passed a bill seeking the establishment of Road Traffic and Motor Vehicle Administration Agency in the nation’s capital.

The proposed agency, if the bill is signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, will, among others, review the parking fees and enforce the parking laws in the FCT.

The park-and-pay system became a controversial issue about five years ago before a court judgment stopped the FCT Administration from collecting fees from residents for on-and-off-the-street parking within the metropolis.

The new bill, which is already passed by the House of Representatives, empowers the FCT administration in collaboration with the FCT Internal Revenue Service to enforce parking rules.

The bill also saddles the proposed agency with the responsibilities of producing and administering vehicle and driving licences in collaboration with relevant federal agencies.

The specific functions of the FCT traffic management service as contained the bill are: regulating road traffic management and motor vehicle administration within the FCT.

The agency will also regulate, register, revoke, license and renew motor vehicle documents and issuance of vehicle identification number plates in the FCT.

It will also conduct road worthiness test and issue road worthiness certificates to all categories of vehicles for the purpose of ridding the FCT of non-road worthy vehicles.

The agency will also conduct training and testing of drivers to ensure competence for issuance of driving licence in the FCT.

The proposed agency will also regulate and enforce the use of bus stops and bus terminals and the activities of the commercial vehicle drivers in the FCT.

It will also register, enforce and accredit driving schools and enforce the ban on the use of motorcycles as a means of public transport in the FCT.

The officers of the new agency as contained in the bill have been mandated to arrest any person who commits traffic offences like wrong overtaking, traffic light violation, and driving with expired documents or without driving licence.

They are also to arrest anyone that drives right-hand vehicles, drivers who exceed driving limit, drive against traffic or obstruct traffic through illegal parking, among others.