The Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello has raised alarm over the deplorable condition of Minna-Suleja road which dualisation, he said, the Federal Government has abandoned for years.
The governor, who undertook an inspection visit to site during which time he interacted with key officers of the company handling the project, Salini Nigeria Limited, and stakeholders at a failed section of the road at Bonu Village in Gurara Local Government Area of the State, pleaded to the federal government to do something urgently on the road.
He said that the State Government has made several efforts in maintaining the road, but that such efforts did not yield the desired result due to volume of traffic, heavy duty vehicles and lack of routine maintenance of the road since it was constructed over two decades ago.
“Even though it is a federal road, we have tried as a State Government to fix it.
“Indeed, I directed continuous maintenance of the road, but due to high volume of traffic, heavy duty vehicles and age of the road, it didn’t last long.
“It is clear that considering the strategic importance of the road, the final solution is for the Federal Government to complete the dualisation project started over six years ago.
“It is absolutely necessary that the Federal Government through the Ministry of Works, intervenes as a matter of priority.
“Ordinarily, the journey from Minna to Abuja, which is about one hour 30 minutes, now takes over three hours, resulting in discomfort and waste of human resources.”
Governor Bello begged the Federal Government to adequate budgetary allocation to enable the contractor complete the road in record time.
Earlier, the Project Manager, Engineer Paolo Campanella, said that inadequate funding was responsible for the slow pace of work, even as he said that only 20 per cent has been released for the project since it started .
“The project is suffering inadequate budgetary provision. Only 20 per cent of funds have so far been released. The total cost of the project – Phase I and Phase II – is N34 billion.
“But in six years, only N6 billion was released, which is inadequate.”
The project manager, who expressed delight over the interest shown by Governor Bello, revealed that the project was designed to be completed in three years.
“This is a project of 30 months duration. Phase I was awarded at end of 2010 and supposed to be completed in July, 2013. Now the time has elapsed, redoubling the contract period.
“Phase II was awarded in February 2015, although there was no mobilization to kick-start the work and largely due to the outstanding debt we have in Phase I, we couldn’t go ahead with the project.”
Though about 70 per cent of the Federal Capital Territory was carved out of Niger State, it is the only state close to the FCT, which has not been linked by dual carriage way.
Kaduna, Nasarawa and Kogi State have all been linked to the FCT by dual carriage way. [myad]
