Going by the current speed of work in the reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, it may be completed before August 2017, the Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, has assured.
Onolememen, who spoke during a tour of the road on Monday, noted that work had progressed well on the road, with about 30 kilometres out of the 127.6 kilometres, or 23.5 per cent, already completed.
“I want to assure road users that the work will be completed even before the estimated time because of the improved financing mechanism for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. In my own assessment, the work is going on well on both sections, with about 30km completed.
“Road A2 that starts from the Warri Port up to Sapele has already been dualised; the other is from Benin to Lokoja, where work is in progress. Once the programme is completed, Nigerians will be able to travel form Lagos to Maiduguri and from Calabar to Makurdi, Abuja and onward,” he said.
According to him, most of the road projects are being done on public-private partnership arrangements.
The minister said about 25,000 kilometres out of the 35,0000 kilometres of federal roads across the country had been rehabilitated from 2011 till date and that the entire project portfolio in the six geopolitical zones was valued at N1.7tn.
He said, “In terms of federal roads, a lot is being done; Nigerians who travel through these roads are aware that a lot is being done on the roads. In terms of statistics, from 2011 till date, we have been able to bring the number of kilometres of roads constructed from about 4,000 kilometres in 2011 to about 25,000 kilometres.
“Out of that, about 3,000 kilometres are new alignments and 2,000 are rehabilitated alignments, while about 20,000 kilometres are maintenance on existing alignments. We still have about 10,000 kilometres to work on, many of which are undergoing a lot of work. The six geopolitical zones are well catered for with a semblance of a balance in the entire project portfolio, which is about 184 with a value of N1.7tn.”
The minister also said that the Road Reform Bill, which would help to improve road maintenance and construction, had been approved by the Federal Executive Council and transmitted to the National Assembly for passage.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Works, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, said new road alignments were also in the pipeline.
“We talked of the golden triangle, which will link the South and the North from Lagos to Kano and back to Port Harcourt. These will improve road transportation in Nigeria and show that it is ready to join the comity of growing nations,” he said.
