The National Automotive Council (NAC) is collaborating with Japanese Government to set up a pilot automobile recycling plant in Abuja.
The Director General of the council, Mr Aminu Jalal, made the plan known in Abuja yesterday.
Jalal said the proposed plant would rid the territory of accidental and abandoned vehicles that constituted nuisance on the road and public places.
He said that the pilot plant would also serve as a training centre on automobile recycling for staff of the council and other relevant government agencies.
“We are working with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Federal Capital Territory Administration to set up a pilot recycling centre here in Abuja. At the centre, end-of-life vehicles recovered from road sides, police stations and mechanic workshops will be dismantled and segregated for re-use.
“JICA has already paid for the feasibility study of the pilot plant. What delayed the project was obtaining land from the FCTA but we have got the land,’’ he said.
Jalal said that officials of some of the relevant government agencies were trained by the Japanese government in 2013 on different aspects of auto recycling and legislation.
He said that NAC, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) had benefitted from the training.
According to him, NAC will soon meet with other agencies to work out a bill that will empower them to mop up end-of-life vehicles from the streets for use at the plant.
“We need a law to empower the authorities to take away accident and abandoned vehicles on road sides, police and mechanic workshops or vehicles that do not meet the road worthiness certification. We hope to assemble officers of the agencies that benefitted from the training and work out the bill.
“Some states, such as Abuja and Lagos, have already produced a law on that but it is good to have a national law that will empower the Federal Government agencies to take abandoned vehicles to the recycling plant,” he said.
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