The federal government has
approved N38.4 billion for the completion of road projects in five states of
the country.
Briefing state house
correspondents after the federal executive council (FEC) meeting presided over
by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, Babatunde Fashola, minister of
works and housing, said the roads would cut across Benue, Bayelsa, Anambra, Imo
and Nasarawa states.
He said that all the projects were
inherited from previous administrations.
“They are not new projects, they
are projects that we inherited and we are trying to complete. So essentially
they relate to cost revision because of the ages of the contracts and the
prices of goods that have changed,” Fashola said.
“The first one was the contract for a 13.5km
spur of the road from Onitsha-Owerri road through Okija-Ihembosi-For Ugbor to
Ezinifite in Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra.
“That contract was awarded in
2011 but wasn’t funded until this administration came in so the contractor is
asking us to revise the contract by a review of N488, 980, 891 and an
additional completion period of six months and the council approved that review
of price and the extended completion period.”
The minister said the second contract
was that of the 20km dualisation of Yenagoa road junction to Kolo, Otuoke and
Bayelsa Palm in Bayelsa state.
He explained that the contract
was awarded in December 2014 on the eve of the tenure of the last
administration and it couldn’t even take off because of militancy issues at the
time and limited budget provisions.
“It is one of the contracts that
we have since activated with the sukuk bond. So, the dualisation is progressing
but there is some additional work that needs to be done,” he said.
“There are also results of
further investigations that support a revision of the contract by N7.947
billion and this was approved by the council.’’
He said the third contract was
for the completion of a road linking Nasarawa and Benue states.
“The third one is the 74 kilometer Nasarawa to
Loko Road – that is the road that was awarded, I believe, in 2006, so it’s 15
years today, 74 km and it has not been completed,” Fashola said.
“This road links the Loko-Oweto
Bridge, which we inherited and which we have completed and that Loko-Oweto
Bridge links Nasarawa to Benue, across the River Benue and also connects to the
Oweto to Oshogbedo Road, which we also inherited, which we have completed.
“The complete lane from Otukpo to
Nasarawa ought to be facilitated by this 74km road. The contractor has
struggled with just about five kilometres of it since 2006, and a small bridge.
“So, what we’ve proposed was that
instead of going through the long process of termination and all of that, we proposed
and council agreed that the contractor who finished the bridge and the
contractor who finished the road, because they were all awarded to different
contractors before we came, should join this contractor and take up the
remainder.
“So, we’ve limited the contractor who was
originally awarded this road to just 10.8, that’s all he will do.
“So, we’ve awarded 42 kilometres
to the contractor who did the Oshogbedo-Oweto Road and we’ve then awarded 21km,
which is the part joining the bridge directly, to the contractor who completed
the bridge.
“So, all of these totalling a
revised project sum of about N30 billion, shared amongst the three
contractors.”
The minister noted that the
completion of the road would also save travel time for its users, especially
those travelling from Otukpo in Benue to Abuja.
“This is strategic also for providing
prosperity, lifting people out of poverty because if the saying that time is
money is true, everybody who saves three hours has three hours’ extra
productivity and also consumes three hours less fuel and travel time and so on.
“So, council approved this memo
and we hope that sometime next year we can complete that linkage.
“But as you know, those of you
who went with me, commuters are already using the road despite that path not
being complete.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com