By Melvin Onwubuke
The Federal Government on announced it had begun the construction of the 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi disclosed in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Orji Uchenna,on Thursday in Abuja.
The works minister, who addressed journalists after the council meeting, said the 47.47km dual carriageway has five lanes on each side and a train track in the middle.
Umahi noted that it forms part of the 700km road spanning nine states, with two spurs leading up north, starting that the facility would be constructed with concrete.
He said that the road, which was to be built with concrete technology, would start in Lagos and run through nine coastal routes or states up to Cross Rivers meaning it would go across Lagos, Lekki Deep Seaport, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom.
Though the project was initially franchised on a public-private partnership, the paucity of funds on the contractor’s part made the minister to seek FEC approval to award the project.
In order to speed up the implementation of the project, the Minister initiated discussions with the African Development Bank on possible funding mechanisms on Tuesday.
In the statement, the special adviser noted that the contractor began the project after the official handover of the first phase of the project, made up of 47.47 kilometres of dual carriageway, to Hitech Construction Company Ltd.
Umahi, who was accompanied by the Federal Ministry of Works Controller in charge of Lagos State, Olukorede Keisha, stressed the need for contractors handling Federal Government road projects to deliver within a record period, noting that the government would not allow delays or slow down after mobilisation.
He, however, commended very highly Hitech Construction Company Nigeria Limited for being reputable for quality and speedy delivery of jobs. He acknowledged their efforts in starting work immediately after the contract was awarded.
He said, “They have completed some filling of 1.3 kilometres from the day the project was awarded to them. It shows the speed they are going to deploy this project. Within a couple of weeks, we awarded the project to them, they mobilised a lot of dredging equipment, and you can see that they have recovered 1.3 kilometres of section one of the phase.”
