Minister of Works, Mr Mike Onolememen
The Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, has said the reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway may be completed before August 2017.
The minister said his projection was based on the encouraging speed of contractors handling the road project.
He spoke while on tour of the road on Monday.
noted that work had progressed well on the road, with 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,” he said.
The road is 127.6 kilometres stretch.
According to Onolememen, the Federal Government is working on a programme to link the six geopolitical zones of the country through dual carriageways.
“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 from Lagos to Maiduguri and from Calabar to Makurdi, Abuja and onward,” he said.
He said 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.
He also disclosed and that the entire project portfolio in the six geopolitical zones was valued at N1.7tn.
“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,” the minister added.
He said, “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 of State for Works, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, while speaking during the tour, 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.
