Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council has approved over N10.2 billion for the completion of some road projects across the country.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who disclosed this to State House Correspondents, said the benefitting States include Edo, Ogun, Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue and the Federal Capital Territory.
He said this was part of the four memoranda he presented at the meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, which were all approved.
“FEC approved all four memoranda I presented, with respect to Benin-Ore-Adebamdele Road, particularly the section from Adebamdele to Shagamu. The contract was first awarded in 2014 by the previous administration, and to complete it, the specifications needed to be changed, particularly the shoulders and the pavement were inadequate as conceived to support the kind of trucks and tonnage.
“So, the redesign of the shoulders and pavement provision necessitated a revised estimated total cost of N22.879 billion to take the contract from its original sum of N71.6 billion to N92.5 billion. The stretch involved is 99 kilometres from kilometre 162 to 261. Council approved that review of the total estimated cost in favour of the construction firm currently working there.”
Shedding more light on the approvals, he said the Akwanga-Keffi-Makurdi highway got N4.625 billion for the construction of a 255-kilometre underground cable and telecommunication facility dock along the highway.
He said: “Council also approved the contract for the Akwanga-Keffi-Makurdi highway, an existing contract executed under the China-EXIM loan. This is a sub-contract within the contract, which is the construction of a nine-way underground cable and telecommunication facility dock over the length of 255 kilometres for the sum of N4.625 billion.
“Council approved this and the company will first relocate some of the existing services, cables, pipes and all of that on that corridor and then construct a nine-way dock underground for the future facility. So, this will help in digital communication, pipe, gas and everybody who wants to lay service cables and allied installations in the future without necessarily damaging the existing road.”
Similarly, he said N2.867 was approved for the construction of a bridge along the Langtang-Wase road in Plateau State.
“The other memo was for the construction of a 4×20 meters span bridge at kilometre 18 along Lantang-Wase Road in Plateau State for N2.867 billion.
“Recall last year that the bridge, which was an old one, collapsed as a result of heavy flooding in the Lantang-Wase area cutting off people. We had to provide some remedial crossing for the communities. So, the council has approved that we reconstruct the bridge this time using reinforced concrete at N2.867 billion.”
The Works Minister also told Journalists that over N900 million was approved for the automation of the process for the issuance of certificate of occupancy in respect of federal government lands.
The last memo approved was for the design and equipping of an automation process for the issuance of certificate of occupancy in respect of federal government lands.
“Currently, the Minister for Works and Housing has delegated authority for signing certificates of occupancy in a manual form. But we are moving to automation based on this approval, that all of these processes can be initiated online, processed online, approved and printed in a digital form and this will also provide business continuity and retrieval in case of any obstruction arising from natural and other unforeseen courses. The contract for all of this was N976,037,330 with a completion period of 10 months,” he added.
PIAK
